Star Wars: The Soldier
by voodoo-bullet
Summary: Caption Rex is a true soldier. He is tough, strong and smart. He's loyal to the republic, to the General and to his men. The army is all Rex knows and its where he belongs. But when the Caption meets a little girl who doesn't seem to belong anywhere, he'll have to become something more then just a soldier to help her. But is it possible for a clone to be anything else?
1. Chapter 1

Rex stands at the back of a gunship with General Skywalker, Commander Tano and a few troopers from the five-hundred and first. He grabs the bar above him to keep balance as the ship flies over the high trees of Locuna's forests. Rex doesn't know how long they've been flying exactly, but judging by the pain in his legs from standing, he'd say a couple hours.

They arrived on Locuna after the Chancellor received a call for help from the plane't government. Apparently the Separatists have been harassing them to join for months, they finally launched an Invasion. Its not surprising. Locuna is a planet rich with valuable resources and is placed next to a vital hyperspace lain. It's important the separatists don't take this planet. If they do the separatists would have a way to easily run supplies almost anywhere in the outer rim.

The only armies close enough to intervene were Skywalker with his 501st and Kenobi with his 212 attack battalion. They both managed to take down the weak blockade and land near the city of stone. Locuna's capital, And now their base of operations.

Now the General, the Commander, Rex and a large chunk of his men are on their way to join general Kenobi's men on the front line in four gunships and a LAAT/c carrying an AT-TE.

"Sir, there's a transmission from general Kenobi" their co-pilot says over the ships speakers.

Rex looks over at the general. We're supposed to have radio silence, so why would Kenobi contact them. Rex know's in his jut that something bad has happened. Skywalker's expression tells Rex that he's thinking the same thing.

"Put it through" Skywalker orders.

A life sized version of Kenobi appears before them in holographic form. He doesn't look happy.

"There's been a change of plans, I need you and your men to go to the city of the forest, evacuate the citizens and bring them to the capital," Kenobi says, folding his arms.

"What happened?" Skywalker asks after a moment of processing. Everyone is caught off guard by Kenobi's orders. They're prepped for a _battle_, not an escort mission.

"Cities are being attacked by bomber droids. The city of the forest is the closest one to your position, and the most damaged."

"Can't you send fighters to shoot the droids down," the Commander asks, as if she can read the captain's mind.

Kenobi strokes his beard as he goes on, "All the fighters were destroyed to get through the blockade, and we wont be receiving more for at lease four days. I sent you the city's coordinates, and I'm also sending a gunship with enough rations for the journey back. The rest of your men are going to the other cities that were hit to do the same and my men can keep the enemy busy until you can finish. Just worry about getting the people to safety. And Anakin, _do_ be careful."

Skywalker smirks at that "Of course master, when am I ever not careful?"

"Oh the _memories_" Kenobi mutters, touching his forehead before the hologram shuts off.

"Should I send the carrier back?" Tano asks her master shortly after.

"We might need the tank." The caption advises. The general considers it and nods in agreement.

"We'll be close to the front lines, so bringing it along won't hurt" the general finally decides. "Rex-"

"Already on it" Rex replies, activating his bucket's comlink to tell the men about their new mission.

"I sense this isn't going to be easy" Skywalker mumbles to no one in particular, after a long time of silence.

"I just hope it's a small city" Tano replies. Rex turns his comlink off when he's done. He watches the giant trees through the cracks in the blast doors as he feels the gunship change its course. Away from a battle field, and towards a broken city.


	2. Chapter 2

The ship's speakers come on after a long time of silence where Rex found himself thinking of how they have to travel all the way back to the capital on foot. "Sir, I think you should see this" the co-pilot says over the speakers as he opens the blast doors. Unfortunately some of the newer troopers aren't prepared for what they see.

The city comes up fast. It isn't as big as he imagined, more like a big town then a city, but definitely of the forest. It looks like the buildings grew out from giant trees and turned into structures. As if the whole city was grown instead of built. Rex wishes he could have seen the city before the droids bombed its streets. It must have been beautiful, but now its destroyed. Black smoke rises up into the sky in places that the fires haven't died down yet and the surrounding five clicks of forest has been burnt down. The air smells like smoke that burns the captain's nostrils and is filled with the Locunian's screams for help. As they get closer Rex can make out the distinct shapes of dead bodies littering the streets. The droids are long gone, they did their job. So much destruction. The forest city is useless to the separatists. Rex has seen bad things in his life as a result of the war, but this is one of the most meaningless acts of bloodshed he's ever seen the separatists commit. The gunships circle the city, their pilots are too shocked to do anything.

"They didn't have a chance" a trooper mutters from behind. Rex clenches his fists without realizing it. _They didn't have a chance._

The caption is the first one to recover with everyone else (even the Jedi) still _tacking in_ the view. He activates his comlink. "Ship two" he says sternly.

"Sir" the pilot from ship two responds after a moment's hesitation.

"Land to the west of the city. We'll send the citizens to you, set up a communal kitchen and a first aid station. Carrier one, you awake?"

"Wide awake sir" the carrier one pilot responds, faster than the other.

"Good. Drop the tank with two then get back to general Kenobi's main forces. Everyone else fan out, land in the city and help the Locunians. I want the medics ready for touchdown. Get the critically injured loaded onto the gunships. I'm I clear?" he waits and only gets a few Yes-sir's. That's not enough for him. "Shake it off troopers! This, is, life and death!" Rex yells, taking the shock out of his men like only a good yelling can.

"Yes sir!" they all respond.

"That's what I thought" the caption shuts his comlink off and looks back at the city as the gunships break off in different directions and begin landing sequences.

They touchdown on the crumbling ground with a jolt and the medics get to work immediately. They find people right away, stumbling around confused, scared and speaking in a strange language he doesn't understand.

Locunians are a sub-human species, they look a lot like humans, except for their cat-like eyes and slightly tipped nails. Most of them aren't hurt that badly. The medics take command and start deciding who will be loaded onto the ships or not. Skywalker and Tano begin to cut through walls to get the people trapped inside the buildings.

In the kayos, Rex spots Kix trying to lift a wall that's fallen over. He runs over and hears crying coming from under the wall. Rex grabs the wall and try's lifting it with the medic but the wall won't move. It isn't made of wood like he originally thought. the commander spots them and comes to help.

"Stand back," the Padawan says as she closes her eyes and lifts her arms. The wall shakes a little but that's all. Only when Rex starts to think it won't work does the wall slowly start to lift off the ground. The captain lays on his belly to look underneath as it comes up. He can see the faint shadow of a Locunian. "_Any_, day" Tano grunts under the pressure of holding the wall.

Kix and Rex crawl through the debris under the fallen wall and hope it doesn't crush them. They both grab an arm and drag the screaming man out. The commander drops the wall and goes to help out elsewhere as Kix works on the old man. The Locunian's legs are crushed from holding up the wall and he's losing blood fast. Rex stands over them and powerlessly watches as Kix works, he thinks the man is missing a foot but can't tell for sure. He also absently notes that Locunian blood is a lot brighter then human blood, it almost glows red.

"Aeee! Gebnara goovak! Gebnara goovak!" the man yells in Locua, he starts to panic upon seeing his legs. The man starts to thrash which causes more blood to squirt out. Rex has to hold him down so he will stay still. Kix quickly rummages through his bag and Rex starts having trouble keeping the panicked man down.

"Kix?!" the captain says, trying to speed him up.

"Alright, got it!" Kix says as he pulls out a needle and instantly injects it into the old man's neck. The man instantly calms down and stops moving. The blood stops squirting out. Rex lets go when the Locunian falls asleep and sits back. There's a moment where Rex and Kix just sit there and catch their breaths, but it's a small moment that ends too fast for their breaths to be completely captured and detained. "Stretcher!" Kix yells as they get up. A clone runs over with a hover stretcher following him. Rex helps the clone lift the man onto it. "He's stable for now, wrap his legs up then Load him onto the ship, and keep an eye on him" Kix tells the clone.

"Right" the clone runs off towards the gunship with the stretcher in close pursuit.

Most of the day was like that. Finding people under the ruble then loading them onto the ships or sending them to the camp outside the city of forest. The work seemed to go on forever. But as time when on they found less and less living Locunians to recover. Rex finds the general in front of the gunship when all of the survivors are ether on the gunship, or at the camp. The medics are starting to pack up their equipment and stations for going to the camp as well.

"Everyone in our area has been evacuated" Rex informs as he takes his helmet off.

"What about the other areas" Skywalker asks. Rex doesn't answer. He doesn't know about the other areas.

"I just checked, they're all heading to the camp right now" the commander says as she walks towards them.

"How many injured?" the general asks his padawan.

"The ships are full, but there was enough room for all of them."

"Good." Skywalker turns to Rex "order the ships to the capital."

Rex nods, (way ahead as he already activated his comlink) and starts carrying out the order.

Skywalker turns back to Tano. His expression becoming serious "What's the death count?" he asks. Rex freezes with a finger over the comlink's call button, waiting for her answer.

Ahsoka frowns and looks down at her feet "More than half, we don't have a number" she finally says.

"Blast" Rex mutters, he was expecting a high death count, but not more than half.

Skywalker breaks the long silence and orders everyone to the camp.

As Rex walks through the streets, he can't help but think about all the damage the bomber droids caused. The city is practically gone. But in his mind, the real damage becomes the number deaths the droids raked up, and from that the droids really turn into the separatists. Then from that, he found himself wondering how many more innocents have to die in this war. Then from that, the clone caption gets a headache.


	3. Chapter 3

The camp truly is a sad site. Most of the survivors sit on the ashy ground around the gunship, whispering or crying. Some people wander the camp with panicked faces as they scream names into the smoky air, looking for loved ones, but Rex knows some won't be found. There is so much morning in the air.

A large number of Locunians managed to save a cart or wagon with their belongings loaded into them. A few are even being pulled by large animals with dark, rock-like skin, dull heads and big dull red eyes.

The troopers do what they can for the people. Many hand out food and blankets and there's a big crowd over at the newly set up healing center. All the medics are going there to help.

Fives spots them come into the camp and jogs over. The general looks down at the commander.

"Snips, go see if you can help in the healing center," he says. Tano nods and walks off.

"Sir," Fives salutes when he gets to them.

"What's our status," Rex asks.

"We count around three hundred survivors, and I don't think any more are coming. General Kenobi's gunship with the rations and supplies arrived an hour ago, and we loaded everything into the tank" he says, pointing over his shoulder at the AT-TE.

"Good. Load up Obi-Wan's gunship with the old and sick, people who won't be able to keep up on the move, and send them ahead to the city" the general orders.

"Yes sir," the trooper is about to run off but stops all of a sudden. He looks back at them as if forced to and the captain raises an eyebrow. When Fives speaks, its with a hesitant yet annoyed voice. "And there's someone demanding that he speak with _you _sir" he says, directing it to the general. Fives is finding it hard to keep a straight face now. "Apparently he's the '_all-powerful leader of this fine city that will only talk to the man in charge of all us inferior clones'_" Skywalker took a breath, just hearing about the leader is starting to get on his nerves.

"Ok, where is he" he finally asks.

Fives points towards the ship. "You can't miss him, he's the one wearing the giant red head dress and looking at people like they crawled out of his toilet."

"Joy" Skywalker mumbles. Rex chuckles.

They make their way to the ship, weaving through the crowd that gets thicker as they get closer. Rex scans the people as he walks. They all stay together in tightly packed groups of varying sizes. They like to stay together, he figures. Vary social people. But not all of them. Rex notices a little girl with white hair siting on a small rock just outside the camp. She blankly watches the ruined city. Deep in thought. For some reason, she's alone, there's not a parent in sight and no one's going near her. As if she new she is being watched, the girl shoots her head to the side and looks directly at Rex. The captain freezes under her look, too shocked to do anything. The kid looks like she's seen bad things in the last few days, everyone here probably has. But she doesn't cry like the other kids, she just stares blankly at him.

The girl suddenly looks away, fixating on something else. The captain follows her eye site to find a dozen Locunians glaring at her. They quickly turn around and continue talking when they were caught by her. Rex realizes other people are glaring at her as well and swallows. Rex has seen that look before. He doesn't know why, but they don't like her. He looks back to the rock and finds it vacant, the girl nowhere to be seen. Rex stops in his tracks, confused about where she went. How did she do that?

"Rex?" the captain snaps out of it and looks forward to find Skywalker watching him, trying to follow his gaze to see why he stopped.

Rex recovers fast. "Sorry, sir, it was nothing" he says and starts walking again. But the general keeps watching him, unconvinced.

They spot the leader right away. A tall, pail and sickly skinny man who stands in the middle of a group of higher class Locunians, including his guards and advisers. He has a giant red headdress decorated with what looks like scaly feathers and diamonds. Just like Fives said, the man tilts his nose up like he smells something nasty at all time.

"You've got to be kidding me" Rex mutters. Skywalker catches it and smiles.

"My thoughts exactly" they walk up to the group, their path quickly being blocked by a Locunian guard's staff.

"I'm the Jedi" the general says as he waves his hand and the guard's staff moves out of their way, as if he needed to prove it. The leader sees it and shoves past the guards to stand tall in front of the Jedi. He sizes Skywalker up and tries to look intimidating. But Rex can't take him seriously with the bedazzled headdress and overly decorated robes. He looks like a cross dresser.

"I am Doren Gefar, the great leader of this city. And I _demand_ to know why I haven not been allowed onto that ship," he says in a squeaky accented voice, pointing at the gunship behind him where clones are helping the old and sick on board as they speak. "Why do the lower classes get to fly when I don't?" he's angry. Rex catches some of his men glaring at the leader, they probably had to deal with him before the general arrived.

Skywalker watches Gefar in disbelief. "Those people won't be able to keep up with us on the journey. They'd only slow us down. So they will be flown back. And it appears there isn't any space left for you to use. I'm sorry but that's how it works. You'll need to walk like everyone else." The general says as he folds his arms. Rex hides his smirk.

The leader got angrier and angrier as Skywalker talked. His face is red now and the people in his group are starting to back away from him like parents bracing for a child's tantrum. "Who do you _think_ you are? I order you to let me on that ship or I will have you executed when we arrive to the city of stone." People are watching them now.

Skywalker stays quiet for a moment. "I think I'm the Jedi that saved your people," he finally says in an even voice, as if he was not just threatened to be executed by a man in a diamond clad headdress. The leader looks like he just got punched in the face. "This is a relief mission. No one gets special treatment. Everyone will get an equal share of rations and supplies. But I will respect you as the leader and I will recognize you as the voice of the people. If you want to use that voice you can address it to my second in command, captain Rex" He gestures to Rex and walks away before the leader could reply. Rex follows him. The captain doesn't like the idea of having to deal with the leader but he doesn't complain.

"I sense the leader is going to be difficult" the general says.

"I don't need powers to know that" Rex mumbles. Skywalker smirked at that.

"We should move out soon" Skywalker says, the captain looks up at the planet's life star. They have about four hours until it goes down, he thinks at least.

"We won't get far until we'll have to stop for the night" Rex points out.

"That's true, but I don't want to be here if the droids come back. I'll let Obi-Wan know what's happening. Get the men packed up and ready to move" the general orders and walks away.

Rex wastes no time. He activates his comlink and starts ordering his men to pack up. He leaves the healing station alone for now. They'll have to be the last to pack it in as they're still getting a lot of people that are hurt. But everyone else should be ready to go soon.

* * *

**hay look who figured out how to make the horizontal lines! anyhow, I feel like I should mention that the Locunians and Locunia are mine, everything else is obviously not mine. **

**and check out my pinterest!: ablack2428**

**ill be putting stuff on there that has to do with my story, not now, but soon, but I have cute animals on there so take a look, sooooo cute!**

**and review! review! review! I'm looking for criticism, so burn me! I can take it (gets out bucket of water). I want to learn from my mistakes and write better. I've got dyslexia so its hard for me to write properly (love spell check). point out things that I missed or just say it sucks (im looking at you trolls). even if you don't normally review. just, write, something...please? :3**


	4. Chapter 4

They start moving an hour later. Skywalker leads the great herd of Locunians as they pull their wagons and carts full of things they don't need. Rex thinks they should have left most of it behind but doesn't speak up about it. It was already hard for them to leave in the first place. The tank walks in the middle of the parade with most of the troopers around it. Rex walk's in the tank's shadow to keep cool. The leader is at the back of the giant group with his own little parade of guards and friends, pretending he is leading at the front, Rex figures.

They walk in silence for a long time, navigating through the a small windy road as it cuts through the forest like a giant scar with the biggest trees Rex has ever seen on ether side. He notices that the further they got from the city the bigger the trees get and the more wildlife they see. And there's lots of wildlife. The captain spots little white fury animals with blue strips going down their backs and big fluffy tails. They run and play through the trees. A particularly small one accidentally falls off the branch it was running along and lands on another branch below that a giant black lizard sits on. The lizard launches forward and tries to catch the white animal in its mouth. But the little guy is too fast for the lizard and dodges the strike. It runs over the lizard's back and climbs up the tree trunk to safety. Then it keeps playing like nothing happened. A few minutes after that Rex starts hearing loud chirping sounds coming from above. He looks up to find giant bird like creatures with golden feathers siting on the top branches and curiously staring back at them. When the city's location is only evident by the steady line of far away smoke over the tree tops, Rex and the others start to hear deep growling and that seemed like laughing coming from within the forest. They hear it every hour, but never see anything. Everyone keeps moving though. Rex notices the Locunians getting nervous, they know somethings out there.

Rex keeps a careful eye on the forest edge in case something wants to say hi. But when he scans the forest ahead he spots the little girl from before. She walks alone and keeps to the side of the road. He almost didn't see her with the wagons in the way. But the white hair makes her jump out in the end.

It doesn't take long for Rex to notice the Locunians are purposely staying away from her. But she doesn't care. The kid keeps her head down as she walks, ignoring those who glare at her and talk in hushed voices so the she can't hear, but Rex can tell she can. The captain still doesn't know why the people are acting like this. The kid can't be older than eight or nine.

After thinking about it for a moment, he starts entertaining the idea that it might be because she just looks different. He knows a few planets that do that. The kid has long white hair tied in multiple loos braids when everyone else's hair is black and short. All the children wear fancy clothes that look expensive and clean (minus the ash). The girl only has a giant grey and blue t-shirt (on her it's a dress that goes to her knees) and black shorts that are also too big for her. She's also not wearing shoes and covered in mud. The only thing she carries is a lather bag slung across her shoulder, perfect for her size. It's considerably less than the other people's loads, who decided to bring as much as they possibly could. In Rex's book, that makes her smarter than the others. Maybe that's why she's getting death glares, because she doesn't need to worry about a wagon and they're just jealous. The captain knows that isn't it, but it would be nice if it was.

"Sir" Rex turns to find Fives looking up at the tree tops. He follows the trooper's gaze and almost trips over his feet as he spots the head of a gigantic reptilian creature watching them through the top branches of the tallest trees. Its scaly neck is extremely long and its head is the size of the tank. Green plants have grown on it's bark brown scales like a moving tree covered in vines, making it blend in with the forest perfectly

Rex instantly goes into battle mode and draws his blasters, aiming them at the creature along with the other troopers. It stairs at them with big red lazy eyes. Rex notices two long tentacles attached to the back of its head. The creature uses them to grab giant leafs off the trees and put them in its mouth.

"It's a herbivore" Echo says in awe. Rex risks a quick glance at the Locunians. Those who spotted it seem unfazed by the creature, some are even happy to see it.

"Stand down troopers, its harmless" Rex orders.

"A woman called it a voola" Tano mentions as she walks towards them. "They're peaceful, apparently."

"That would've been nice to know a few seconds ago, we almost blasted it," the captain says as he throws his blasters back into their holsters and glances at the padawan. But he suddenly remembers the kid and looks back to where she was only to find that she's disappeared, again. The captain scans the crowd of Locunians but it's too thick to see anything. How does she do that?

They leave the voola behind and keep walk until the sun starts to go down. The recon squad meats back with them and tell the general about a large space about half a click up the road. They get there and find a giant field of uncut grass just off the road. Skywalker deems it exceptional and lets the party to rest for the night. Locunians instantly file into the clearing and flatten the tall grass in minuets with hundreds of feet and carts. They park their wagons in no apparent order then start making bonfires.

Shortly after Dex (the tank's main driver) manages to navigate the walker into the middle of the field. Fives, Echo and Rex then drag a crate of rations out from the back and onto the ground. When they're done, Fives looks to the hungry crowd that's gathered in front of them. "Does anyone hear speak _standard_!" Fives asks the people. No one answers. "Come on. _Standard_! _Can, anyone, speak, standard_!" the people look at each other and talk in Locua. Finally, an old woman steps through the crowd and comes forward.

"I, speak, little, standard" she says in a beep ascent as she walks up.

"Good" Fives says. He points to the box, "_food_." He pretends to eat something in his hand and the woman smiles and nods. Echo points to the surrounding people.

"Everyone, gets, _two cans_" the trooper pulls two cans of food out of the box and Fives holds up two fingers. The woman pauses for a moment then her smile gets bigger, she nods and holds up two fingers.

"Unaka, kem pem ake" she says before she turns around and starts talking to her people. They all come forward and start passing cans towards the back of the crowd.

"That went well" Echo says sarcastically, smiling at Fives. Fives grunts.

They walk back to their own bonfire at the side of the tank, Kix is already there. They sit down on the dirt and take their helmets off. Kix collects their cans, cracks them open and empties the contents into the pot he rigged to hang over the fire.

"Mmm, ration soup, my _favorite_" Fives says sarcastically. Kix punches his shoulder.

"I'm just trying to make it a little better" the medic says defensively as he stirs the stew with a stick.

"Um, I think you need _flavor_ to make it a little better, Kix" Echo says, grinning.

Rex isn't listening to the troopers. He sits on the cool night ground and enjoys the feeling of not walking under the hot sun. The people have fires all around them, heating up their rations. The kids are running around playing tag, laughing, screaming and annoying the grownups. Some people are even playing music with the bass mando, the chordokeylo and chidinakalu. Rex quickly learns that the Locunions are vary social people. They're always in groups and never stop talking in Locua. the language makes them sound like they speak one thousand words a minute. And the way the Locunians quickly and constantly move from one group to another. Theirs always new gossip that must be spread. Rex figures nothing stays a secret for long in their world.

The leader's guards have begun to watch the ration station. It seems they're making sure no one tries to steel more. But its a little late for that, the crowd at the station is gone now, but every few minutes, people go up to get their rations.

Rex grabs a can and fills it back up with the chunky drown slop they like to call rations. It's not completely brown, there's bits of orange and some specks of yellow in there, but it's mostly brown. The sad part is that he's grown accustomed to the slop, all the men have. He even looks forward to eating it in a strange way. It means he isn't dead yet. But Rex can always remember how bad it really is by watching the poor people who's never tried slop before eat it. He watches the Locunians try it. They always make a face on the first try, slow down as if they aren't going to eat it, then realize they are really hungry and eat it all under a minuet. Every time. Every planet. Rex always finds it funny.

He's about to start eating when something caches his attention in the corner of his eye. The little girl is walking up to the ration station. Some people start to stare at her as she walks by. They aren't happy, but she keeps her head high and her sight fixed ahead. The men notice Rex and turn to see what he's looking at in time to catch the guards intercept the kid before she can get near the crate. They don't let her pass.

"Beca nocan." One of the guards says in Locua, looking down at the kid and shooing her away. But she doesn't move and glares up at him. People starting to crowd around them. Rex has a bad feeling about this. He slowly reaches for his helmet, not tacking eyes of the situation. The music trails off to silence as the musicians around them stop playing, but Rex can still hear music from fare away.

"Geenja forin topa devi" the kid replies as she tries to get around them. The guard that talked grabs her arm and stops her, she tries to pull away. Rex puts his helmet on. But he doesn't know how his presence will make the people react. He could set them off.

"I'll find the general" Echo says as he slips away and the others put their helmets on.

The girl yanks her arm to try and get free "viano sepina!" she spits. Rex guesses that she just insulted the guard because his face goes red and a vain on his forehead pops up.

"Beca nocan devig! Forest ghost!" the guard yells as he shoves her away. Rex is up and sprinting towards the crowd now, Fives and Kix right behind him. The girl stumbles and falls to the grown.

The Locunians take the opportunity to crowd around the girl and start kicking her. Rex picks up speed and starts shoving people out of the way to get past. The crowd is too thick, he can't get to the kid. The Locunians are out of control, its chaos. The people looked so peaceful before. But now. They're yelling at the girl and at each other, trying to push others out of the way to get a good kick in themselves. When Rex is close enough he reaches out and manages to grab the thick arm of a fat Locunian that is about to launch a kick and yanks him back. He stumbles back and glares at Rex.

"How dare you!" the man yells over the crowd. He throws a wild punch at Rex. But it never connects because the captain moves to the side and swiftly smashes his elbow into the Locunians face. Bright blood sprays out of the giant man's nose as he stumbles back. Rex waists no time as he grabs the fat Locunian's shoulders and brings him down. Kneeing him hard in the chest before shoving his unconscious body forward to clear a path. Rex darts over the man and finally gets to the girl.

He finds her still on the ground, packed into a tight ball as she shields her face from the constant bombardment from all sides. Rex works to fend off some of the people, blocking their assaults and pushing them back into the crowd. They aren't slowing down, and the captain thinks he even caused them to try harder. He has end this, and he knows it.

Rex quickly knees a man trying to get pass him in the gut and shoves him back to make some space. He then pulls his left blaster out, lifts it over his head, and fires all in one second. The blue bolt races up like a flare and disappears, its distinct sound echoing throughout the field for all to hear. The crowd freezes now that blasters are involved. Rex stays there for a moment with everyone watching him.

The captain spares a look down to the girl. He's met with one giant red eye watching him through a small opening between her arms. They keep their eye contact for only a second until he looks away. Her body is shaking, she needs help. Rex scans the crowd for Kix. He spots the medic and Fives in the crowd, half way to the middle, but the people won't let them pass. He lowers his blaster and points it at the people in their way as his face goes dark.

"Back away," the captain demands, he doesn't even try to keep the anger out of his voice. The people don't move, they stand there like a pack of wolves waiting for his guard to go down, but that isn't going to happen. Rex draws his second blaster and points it at the crowd as well. "_Back_!" he yells. Rex can't think of a time he was angrier than this moment right here. He's seeing red and his trigger fingers are getting that itch that he would love to scratch. She's just a kid, you don't hurt kids! That is one of the captain's biggest personal rules.

The people realize his anger and slowly start to move away. Fives and Kix finally manage to squeeze through the thinning crowd. Kix runs past Rex and makes it to the girl. The captain looks down at her and frowns. Her body is still shaking and she's covered in bruises. She stays in her tight ball despite Kix's efforts to untangle her and check for damage. He starts to think they're too late.

The people are quiet, the only sounds where the crackling of fires that give them light and Kix's voice as he tries to talk to the kid. Kix pulls a small med blanket out of his bag and gets Fives to help him move the girl onto it. Rex would've helped but he doesn't want to take his eyes off the Locunians. More troopers are finally showing up to control the people, witch makes a lot of them leave.

"What's going on" Rex spots the general pushing his way through the small crowd with Tano and Echo following behind. Skywalker stops in his tracks when he sees the kid. the commander sees her and walks past Skywalker to kneel down at the girl's side. Rex faces the general as he puts his blasters away.

"Sir" he says, not bothering to salute "the people attacked the girl when she tried to get rations." Upon hearing this, the general scans looks over the small crowd, but all the Locunians that where actually kicking her are gone now.

"Why?" the general asks in disgust. Rex shacks his head.

"I don't know."

"It is because that ghost at your feet was steeling our food." Everyone except Kix and the girl turn to see Gefar walking towards them, the people clearing a path for him and his guards so he easily gets through. The leader walks with his nose up and an evil smirk plastered across his face. Rex hates people like that. His arrival causes the crowd to grow once more. Rex doesn't like that, he starts to casually keep a hand on his left blaster.

"The rations are for everybody. Your people had no right" Rex starts, trying to keep the anger out of his voice, but failing miserably. The leader ignores Rex like he doesn't exist and only acknowledges Skywalker. His smirk gets wider. Rex's fists clenches and he has visions of wiping the smirk of the leaders face.

"The rations are not meant for, _that_," Gefar starts, gesturing down to the girl with a lazy wave. "They are for _my_ people. The people from _the city of the forest._ That girl is not one of us, and therefor, she was steeling. On this planet, the penalty for steeling is up to the ones that suffer from the crime." The leader says, his squeaky voice getting squeakier and making his ascent sound ridicules. He folds his arms and triumphantly and stares at Skywalker with his head held high.

"That's crazy, you don't-" Fives starts as he walks forward, but the general stops him from advancing and probably hitting the leader.

"Now if you would hand the little ghost to my guards, they will, _take care_ of her." Gefar says as he waves his guards on. They start walking towards the kid.

"Forget it" Rex says as he gets in the way of the guards, standing tall only inches away from the first one.

"This is the law on our planet, _clone_." The leader smears. "Stand aside, or else!" Rex doesn't move and the guards don't know what to do about it. He knows they aren't real solders, just for show.

"You're not getting past me" Rex growls, more to the leader then to the guards. The commander, Fives and Echo join the captain. The leaders face turns red, Rex figures he's probably used to getting what he wants. The tensions are getting high with the Locunians. The crowed has grown in number. Standing up to the leader made them restless and angry. Locunians shout at the captain in Locua, he ignores then and keeps staring down the first guard. But Skywalker steps between him and the guards before anything really happens.

"Okay, stop." The general says as if he were talking to kids. He glances at Rex before turning to the leader. "Even with your law, the people still didn't have the right to hurt the kid." He points to the crate of food that started it all. "Those rations are property of the republic." The leader sees where this is going and frowns. Rex smirks inside his helmet. "So you and your people have no say on how the food is shared or how we deal with the people that steal food. So you will call the people off or I will make you personally responsible for what happened." The general folds his arms and waits for a response. The leader looks ready to explode in anger, the only thing keeping him from it being the fierce grip his teeth have as they bite his lower lip. All the confidence he had is gone now.

"Vary well," is all he says before turning and walking away. Skywalker clears his throat and the leader stops in his tracks.

"Oh, and by the way, since we'er going to use the laws of this planet. If I catch you taking more than your share of rations, by law I will strip away your food privileges to just enough for you to live off and make you carry supplies for the whole journey. If this happens again I will hold you responsible and let captain Rex right here deal with you how he sees fit." Rex smiles at that.

"Very generous of you, sir" the leader glares at the clone. Skywalker keeps going.

"And it wouldn't hurt to _apologize _to the kid on behalf of _your_ people." The Locunians that understood what he said become outraged by the Jedi's words. The leader scowls at Skywalker. But he reluctantly looks down at the girl, like she's garbage, but he still looks.

"Great leaders do _not_ apologize to _ghosts_" he spits before turning and quickly walking away. The crowd evaporates with him.

* * *

Echo goes to get a hover-stretcher from the tank and the commander leaves to try and find the girl's family. Rex doesn't think that will end well but he guesses it's worth a try. Skywalker kneels down next to the girl and across from Kix. Rex stands over them and watches as the people shoot death glares his way.

"She was lucky. I expected a lot worse," Kix mumbles. "No broken bones or internal bleeding, so far." The medic applies some pressure to the girl's rib-cadge. She yelps and pops out of her protective ball. Kix wasn't prepared for it and jumps, falling back onto his butt. The girl crawls a few feet away from him before the pain gets to her and she has to stop. The four of them watch as she starts to hug her rib-cadge, obviusly in pain. Rex can tell by how the medic is acting that this isn't good. "The girl has some _heavily_ cracked ribs." Kix mumbles to the general as he gets up and slowly reaches for his med bag. The girl realizes they are watching her and starts to glare at them with bright red eyes. Rex could have sworn he saw a bit of hesitation flash in them. But he doesn't think anyone else noticed it. She's scared but she's hiding it. "If she moves they might snap and puncher her lungs, or her heart, and that's really, _really_ not good." She watches them incomprehensibly but also suspiciously. Her eyes narrowing on Kix.

"I'm back. What happened?" Echo runs up behind Rex with the stretcher. Fives waves a hand at him to shut up. Kix rummages through his med-pack and pulls out a pneumatic syringe with a vile of bacta loaded into the back. The girl ether recognizes what Kix is holding of she read the situation because she starts to try and stand up.

"We need to give her this, and keep her still," the medic carefully explains. Fives, Skywalker and Rex all nod and start to approach the girl slowly, with Kix following behind them. The girl glares at Kix, daring him to come near her. Rex gets a strange feeling like they're about to try and catch a small animal, and it wont be easy.

"Ecdem, toom" the girl spits as she starts to limp back.

"Um Kix? I think she just swore at you," Echo says from behind.

"Shut up Echo" Fives retorts.

"On three we grab her" Skywalker says, holding up his hands to her. The clones all nod. "Okay, one".

"I have a bad feeling about this" Kix mumbles, as if he could read Rex's thoughts. The medic keeps the syringe hidden behind his back but that isn't fooling anyone.

"Two." the girl slowly goes into a defensive crouch like a cornered animal. Rex can tell she's about to run.

"Encta, novada" she growls and shows her teeth. The captain notes for future relevance that she has small sharp fangs visible in the corners of her mouth. He wonders if all Locunians have fangs.

"Three!" they all blindly lung forward. But the girl was faster. Rex catches a flash of white run between Fives's legs and out behind him. Fives and Echo both stumble forward and crash into each other. Rex manages to regain his balance to stay up and the Jedi never fell for the girl's trick in the first place.

Rex looks back to see the general in hot pursuit of the injured girl. And the captain can't believe what he sees. The girl is fast, _really_ fast. Even with the injuries, Skywalker is actually having trouble chasing her down. Rex runs after them with no hope of actually catching up. The general manages to momentarily catch the girl's arm but quickly yanks his hand back after she bits it. The girl has the advantage of being small, she weaves through the crowd easily and slides under carts to avoid the general's attempts to grab her again (this time with his mechanical hand). Skywalker would have already lost her if she wasn't injured. They outrun Rex in minutes. He pushes past annoyed people to try and catch up but he knows it's hopeless. He doesn't see them over the crowd of people anymore. The clone would catch glimpses of Skywalker running every few minutes but he would disappear just as fast. The kids running into the more crowded areas which had more carts and wagons scattered all over the place. She's definitely smart, she can easily find a hiding spot here.

Rex finally spots Skywalker breathing heavily and pacing in a tight circle, looking confused and frustrated. The general is in a small opening in the middle of a giant crowd of Locunians walking in all directions. Rex walks up to him. "I lost her" Skywalker says, more to himself then to Rex.

"Blast!" The captain exclaims as he scans the thick crowd. If she's in it, they wouldn't know. Fives, Echo and Kix catch up to them.

"Where is she?" Fives asks, looking around.

"Lost her" Rex tells him before looking to their medic. "How long do we have until her rids give?" he asks.

Kix shakes his head "can't tell, soon, probably."

"That's just great" Rex mumbles. He turns to Fives and Echo. "Tell the men what happened, get them searching for the kid. We need to find her, now. Contact Kix on the comlink if anyone spots her. She's scared." The captain adds on the last part like an afterthought. "So we need to be careful on how we approach."

"Right," the two troopers salute and run off.

"What happened?" Tano asks as she jogs up to the remaining three. She reads their faces and frowns. "Where's the kid?" She asks carefully.

"She ran when I tried to give her a shot," Kix explains. The padawan folds her arms and looks over at her master.

"And she got away?" she asks, raising an eyebrow.

"Let's just worry about finding her, okay Snips?" The general replies defensively, Tano rolls her eyes and moves on.

"Did you find her family?" Rex asks, changing the subject. The padawan frowns and looks at the ground. Rex can tell she didn't.

"I asked all the Locunians that could speak basic, but they would stop talking to me when I mentioned the girl with white hair. I don't think she has a family here." Rex feels a pang of sadness deep down. He doesn't let it show. Skywalker breaks the silences that's been growing bigger and bigger.

"Fan out and find her. Try the populated areas first, and look under the carts, she's probably under one," the general orders before walking away to start the search.

* * *

Rex walks down a path between two long rows of carts at the edge of camp for what he thinks is the second time tonight. Most of the Locunians have gone to sleep in the hours since the girl disappeared, which leaves the cart areas quiet and deserted. He figures she would be around here but doesn't know for sure. They've been looking for the kid for two hours now, so every area has already been searched mutable times. Not even the Jedi were able to track her down, which, in a strange way impresses Rex because there have been trained spies that haven't been able to avoid a Jedi.

Kix is getting nervous, he keeps asking for progress reports over the comlink and reminding everyone not to spook the kid if they find her. The longer she's missing the worse Kix will get on the comlink so Rex sent his men to spread out and cover more ground. The men are getting tired and those who didn't actually see the kid are starting to complain behind the captain's back. But they keep looking so he doesn't care. He walks in silence down the narrow path, trying to look into the darkness that helps the girl hide.

His stomach growls, reminding him of the can of brown slop he didn't get the chance to eat. But Rex ignores it like a solder, a hungry solder but still. Finding the girl is more important than his stomach. The growling doesn't let up as the captain walks and he starts to shamefully fantasize about the can of slop back at their fire. The path begins to narrow as the carts and wagons start to close in, forcing Rex to squeeze through the wagons that are too close together. He finally gets to a part where the path widens up when his comlink blinks on.

"I don't think she's in the camp anymore." The general says with an air of regret. Rex frowns. "I'm calling the search off. You should all get some sleep, I'll take the first watch and keep my eyes open for her" the com turns off.

Rex stands there for a minute, looking at the path ahead then looking back the way he came. He's not sure what to do. His stomach feels like it was going to stage an uprising, but he doesn't want to just give up on the kid and go back. What are the odds that he could find her? But he realizes it isn't really a question for him and quickly decides to look around some more. Rex doesn't want to find the kid dead in the morning just because he's tired.

Rex continues walking down the path, his stomach becoming louder and more aggressive as he walks. The captain is silently telling it to shut up when he realizes that its not him this time. He hears growling, but doesn't feel it. Rex stops and listens. The growling isn't as deep as his own, almost like a kid. He scans the area but doesn't see anyone near him. He tries to listen as he slowly walks forward. Stopping when he hears a faint sniffle coming from under a big wagon carrying baskets and crates. Rex quickly realizes it's the sound of a kid crying. He walks towards the wagon as silently as possible, grabbing a wheel when he gets there and bending down to look under it.

The light of Locuna's moon shows him the outline of the little girl siting in the dirt, her back to him. She hugs her rib-cadge like before as she tries to hold back her sobs. The first thing Rex thought was that she is alive, and that's good. The second thing is that she's in a lot of pain and it's really bad. He has to get Kix. Rex is about to sneak off to contact the medic when his hand slips off the wet wheel he was holding onto. It catches him of guard and he falls forward a little. Rex silently curses himself, quickly regains his balance and looks back at the girl.

Apparently he made enough noise to startle the kid because she is fully turned around, on her knees and watching him carefully with a crazy expression on her face. Rex doesn't know what to do. If she runs he won't be able to catch her. But she isn't running. The girl just stares at him, the only change being the realization in her eyes as she recognizes him as the one who stopped the people from nearly killing her. But she's still ready to sprint. Rex catches her eyes flickering to the nearest escape route.

Panicking, the captain slowly starts to kneel down so he doesn't look like a big threat to her, showing his empty hands so she knows he doesn't have anything. She relaxes a little and sits back on her butt, obviusly glad she doesn't have to move. They watch each other for a minute, not really trusting the other to stay where they are. Rex needs the kid's trust if he's going to help her. They stay like that and the longer they're there the more relaxed she gets.

To Rex's horror, his comlink switches on. "Sir? Where are you? The general said-" Kix starts. Rex doesn't really hear the message because he moves too quickly to shut the com off. But it's too late, the sudden sound and movement breaks the deadlock and sets the kid off. She makes a break for it and starts crawling to the other side of the wagon.

"No! Wait!" Rex reaches in to try and grab her but before he can reach her the kid suddenly yelps and falls over. She grabs her stomach and tries to get back to her knees. When Rex tries to reach for her again the kid gets spooked and crawls further under the wagon, not taking her glaring eyes off him. In the back of his mind he notices her eyes pulse a glowing red, but only for a second, too fast to even be sure.

Her injuries are getting worse, he has to do something and scaring her isn't helping. Raking his brain for a plan, Rex suddenly realizes something that he somehow missed. She's just a kid, a little scared girl in a big scary world. The captain calms down like letting air out of a balloon and moves back to his original spot. The kid slowly starts to mimic his calmness and sits back down, further in then before but it's a start. Its at that point that Rex hears her stomach rumbling again. The sound gives the captain an idea. He slowly lifts his helmet off his head and sets it down in front of her, showing her his face for the first time. She looks at him with confused eyes, as if she didn't think the bucket could come off and that was his face.

Rex gives her his best friendly smile (which isn't that good) and rolls his helmet over to her. The kid picks the helmet up with small hands and examines the strange object, lightly tracing the blue jaig eyes above his visor with a finger. The girl suddenly remembers Rex and suspiciously looks back at him.

"Okay, here's the hard part. I will be, right back." The captain points in the direction of his fire. "And _you_, need to stay _here._" He points at her then to the ground. "Stay, _here_." He drops his hand upon seeing her blank face. "You have no idea what I'm saying do you?" She tilts her head to the side and he lets out a sigh. "Alright, just stay here." Rex gets up and walks away.

* * *

Rex jogs through the camp, navigating past the carts as fast as he can and not caring who he wakes up. He finally makes it to the fire to find a snoring Echo, a silent Fives and a nervous Kix. They look pretty shocked to see him.

"Where were you?" Fives asks as he sits up.

"Not now trooper. I need to hurry." Rex grabs his can of slop and realizes it's gone cold. He dumps the slop back into the pot and pours new warm slop in.

"Where's your bucket?" Kix asks.

"I gave it to the kid to try and make her stay put." Rex says. Kix and Fives both jump up.

"What? You found her? Where is she?" Kix demands. Rex looks at the medic when he's ready to go.

"I'm heading back to her now. But she'll probably run if everyone comes. I'll bring her back for the shot." Rex tells them as he jogs off, leaving a confused Fives and a worried Kix behind.

* * *

Rex manages to convince himself that the kid will be gone when he gets there, and that he will never see his helmet again as he jogs back through the camp. The captain gets to the deserted path and silently prays that the kid stayed where she was. He makes it to the wagon and is scared to look under it. Please be there, pleas be there. Rex knells down and looks.

The space under the wagon is empty. Rex freezes. The kid is gone, and she took his helm with her. "Blast!" Rex stands up and starts to nervously pace, which is something he only does when he's really stressed. She's gone and now the captain's mind is racing. He's convinced she won't survive the night, but he doesn't know what to do about it. He's out of ideas. Rex stops pacing and looks off in the direction of their fire. He thinks about getting the men to help him search the area when he feels something hit the back of his heel.

Rex looks down to find a rock rolling away from him, blankly starring at the rock like he's never sees one before. Another rock shoots out from under the next wagon over and hits his foot. Rex kneels and looks under that wagon, coming face to face with the girl again. It takes a moment to sink in. The kid just moved under another wagon. Smart, if he tried to trick her she would have been gone by now.

The clone breathes a sigh of relief and walks over to the wagon. The kid sits cross legged on the ground and holds his helmet in her arms. She isn't as far in as before, Rex figures that means progress. The trooper goes down and sits cross legged like her so they are more at eye level.

"I bet you're hungry." He says. The kid watches Rex as he pulls the can of slop out and holds it out to her. After eyeing the can hungrily for a second she snaps out of the trance and gives Rex another suspicious look. She doesn't take it. Rex frowns. "Come on kid. I didn't do anything to it." He waves the can in front of her. The kid stubbornly folds her arms and looks away. But her stomach betrays her and starts to growl. Rex smirks. "Alright then, if you don't want it, I'll have it." He sits back and shovels a big spoonful of slop unto his mouth. The clone did it to show her the slop is safe but he'd be lying if he said it wasn't because he's hungry to. Rex closes his eyes and smiles. "Mmmmm." He catches the kid watching him (and the can) but she quickly looks away and starts tapping on his helmet.

Once again, Rex holds the can out for her to take. The kid glares at him and he thinks she won't take it. But after a few seconds of hesitation and without taking her eyes of Rex, she gingerly crawls forward and snatches the can out of his hand. Retreating back under her wagon before siting down. She smells the slop and makes a little face. Rex chuckles at how cute it is.

Despite the taste, it's not long until the girl is stuffing her face. Rex doesn't know when the last time she ate something was, but it seems to have been a while. She quickly finishes the can off and lets out a loud burp that couldn't have fit inside such a small girl. So sudden it even surprises her and she slaps a hand over her mouth. Rex smirks at the girls shock, glade that she's finally eaten something. The kid's happier now that her belly's full and mimics his crooked smile perfectly. The captain chuckles. "There you go kid, I knew you could smile." The girl starts to giggle but winces and stops. She starts to hug her rib-cadge again and Rex frowns. Now was the harder part, getting her back to take the shot.

Rex gets on his knees and extends his hand to the kid. She eyes him for a few seconds, the captain can tell she has trust issues. But after some hesitation, and after silently telling him not to try anything with only her eyes, she reaches out and grabs his hand. Rex carefully helps the injured girl out from under the wagon and to her feet.

But she almost falls when she puts weight on her left foot. Rex catches her before she hits the ground and sets her down on top the wagon. Her eyes are squeezed shut and she's whispering something in Locua. Rex recognizes that expression from the war, she's trying to fight back the pain. Her ankle is red, swollen, and bleeding in some places. She obviously can't walk.

Rex picks up his fallen helmet, brushes the dirt off and puts it back on. He then picks the kid up very carefully and secures her in his arms. She's in to much pain to protest, her eyes still squeezed shut.

Rex starts toward the fire for the second time that night. He tries to keep the girl as still as possible without sacrificing his pace while he speed walks through the camp. Rex knows he looks funny, but he doesn't care right now. He can tell the journey wasn't helping her. "Just hold on, kid" Rex tells her as he picks up the pace.

The girl goes back into her protective ball and starts humming a strange malady Rex doesn't recognize. The humming actually calms her down a little, but Rex thinks she's starting to hallucinate or somthing. He panics and quickens the pace again.

The captain gets to the fire a few long minutes later. Fives, Kix and a woken up Echo all stand up as he comes closer. Rex gently puts the kid down on the stretcher Kix set up for her ahead of time.

The kid stops humming at the sudden change and opens her eyes just in time to see Kix approaching with the pneumatic syringe again. She freaks out and would have crawled right off the stretcher if Rex hadn't of stopped Kix. "She doesn't have time" Kix tells him.

"Okay, but she's scared. Just hold on a moment," the captain says. After some hesitation, Kix takes a step back and folds his arms. Him, Echo and Fives all watch as Rex walks over to the girl and takes his helmet off again. The girl watches him (and the syringe in Kix's hand) carefully as she sits up then swings her legs so they dangle over the side. She continues to hug her rib-cadge, as if she doesn't even notice doing it anymore. Rex places his helmet on the stretcher and kneels down to her level.

"_He_" Rex starts as he points to Kix behind him. "Will save _your_ life," he points to her ribs. She looks at him, not knowing what he's saying exactly. But Rex can tell she gets what he means. The girl looks past Rex and at Kix. The medic waves at her. She looks back to Rex and he nods to reassure her.

Rex waves Kix over. The closer Kix gets the more nervous the girl gets. Rex try's to calm her down as Kix stands beside him and gets the shot ready. It's not long until she's on the verge of crying.

"The serum won't work if she's this upset" Kix warns Rex. The captain doesn't know how to calm her down, he doesn't have any experience with kids. He starts to panic and does the first thing that comes to mind. He starts humming.

The humming gets the girl's attention. Rex hums the verses to a lullaby droids on Kamino used to sing to little clone cadets because it's one of the only songs he knows. He feels kind of silly and doesn't even think he's humming it correctly. But the girl actually calms down and listens to the malady so Rex doesn't care if it's silly. As long as it works. The others quickly recognize the song and join in.

When Kix is ready to give the shot he moves so he can get to the girl's arm. She shies away from him so Rex puts his hand on her shoulder to reassure her. But before he knows it the kid has his hand so she has something to squeeze. She closes her eyes.

The captain has a flashback from when he was a little clone cadet. He hated getting shots and always hid from the med droids on shot day. They had to spend the hours hunting him (and a few other cadets that shared his fear) down so they could give the shots. Rex was always the hardest one to find and he always put up the biggest fight, using his training to avoid the instructors put in charge of finding him.

Rex understands the girl's fear. He keeps humming as his hand gets crushed by the kid, she has a stronger grip then anticipated and when Kix gives her the shot she starts squeezing even harder. It only lasts a second and her grip fades. "Done" Kix announces triumphantly. Everyone starts breathing again. The girl opens her eyes and looks at her arm.

Rex relaxes now and stands up strait again. "That wasn't so bad was it, kid?" Rex tells her as he smirks and ruffles up her hair. The girl giggles and swats his hand away. She looks up at him and gives him the same smirk that was copied off him.

"All we have to do is keep her still and she'll make a full recovery, I put some relaxant in with the bacta so she should be out in a few minutes" Kix explains. As if on cue, the girl starts to yawn. She lays down on the stretcher. Rex goes through his bag and pulls out a small green blanket. He picks up his helmet and throws the blanket over the sleepy kid. The captain starts walking back to his spot next to the fire.

"Wren"

Rex stops and turns back around when he realizes it was the kid that talked. The girl looks at him through sleepy eyes. "What was that?" he asks, then remembers she can't understand him and feels silly.

The kid starts to rub her eyes, "inca monaf, _Wren_." She yawns and points to herself. "Wren." she says again.

Rex suddenly realizes what she means. "Your name is Wren?" She smiles at her name and nods. Rex smirks and points at himself. "I'm Caption Rex of the 501st legion." Wren smiles, almost out.

"Inco monaf, I'm-Caption-Rex," she repeats. Rex frowns and Fives starts to laugh.

"Well, um, it's just caption Rex, there's no 'I'm'" he tries to correct her. But Wren is already asleep and can't hear him. Fives stops laughing as Rex sits down next to the fire.

"Looks like someone found a new friend" Fives observes. The captain glares at him.

"Watch it trooper" Rex says.

"Yes sir, I'm-captain-Rex" Fives salutes with a wicked grin across his face. Echo snorts. The captain gives him an evil smile.

"You think names are funny do you? All right then, I'll tell her _your_ name is Mister Sparkles" Rex points two fingers at Fives. "And _your_ name is Misses rancor." He then points at Echo. "Does that sound funny to you?" Fives stops smiling and Echo stifles his laughter. "That's what I thought" Rex smirks triumphantly.

"I let the general know that the kid is fine." Kix says as he turns his com off and sits down across from Rex. The captain isn't listening. He grabs Kix's discarded can and starts filling it with the remainder of the slop. Now that Wren is safe, all he can think of is how hungry and tired he is.

Rex looks over at the sleeping girl. She clutches a bundled up part of the blanket like a stuffed animal, a big smile spreading on her face as she starts to snore a little. Rex doesn't think Kix needed to add the relaxant. He starts to wonder how long it's been since she's had a good deep sleep, without having to worry about the Locunians. Judging by the look on her face, he'd say it's been a long time.

* * *

**Okay, just so you know, this takes place a little after the "rookies" episode. And just for the sake of fitting everything i want into this fanfic I'm gonna ignore the proper SW timeline and say this is very early in the war. Like a month at the most. If there's anything you don't understand then I ether made it up or you can find it on Wookieepedia, its the Star Wars Wiki. They have everything about star wars and i find it super useful.**

**And if you see any mistakes review and tell me. or just review, i'm not picky. **

**and check out me pinterest : ** ablack2428


	5. Chapter 5

"I'm-captain-Rex?" A sleeping Rex absently hears someone say, but he's in too deep for it to actually get him up. "I'm-captain-Rex? Dongara finoya." Someone starts to shack the trooper's shoulder back and forth. Rex only wakes up enough to groan at whoever is shaking him. "I'm-captain-Rex?" The shaking gets harder.

"Shhhhhhh, get back to sleep trooper," the captain absently mumbles. He yawns "That's an order." And with that, he instantly falls back to sleep, until someone starts poking his face that is. He starts blindly swatting someone's hand away as he wakes up some more. He hears giggling and the culprit continues to poke. "Shhhhh, I'll have you court marshaled" Rex says as he rolls over to escape the poking. Now that the captain is practically awake he can hear little footsteps as they pad around him. The footsteps stop and block out the sun from his eyes, he guesses its morning now because of it.

"I'm-captain-Rex, imfoo gingy demetse gonv," Rex is pretty sure he knows who's trying to wake him up, so when she forces his left eyelid open he isn't shocked to see the giant red eye of a little white haired Locunian staring into it. Wren smiles when Rex opens his second eye all by himself and let's go of the first. He figures there's no chance of going back to sleep now, so he groans and sits up.

He's right, it's the morning. Locuna's life star is just coming up through the trees and he can hear the morning wildlife, ready for the day. Fives, Echo and Kix all sit around a newly started fire, warming up from the cold night and eating before we start moving again. Most of the other troopers and some Locunians are also awake, doing similar things at their fires as well.

Wren backs up when Rex stands. He stretches his arms and yawns. The kid looks up at him and mimics his stretch with her tiny arms, giving a small yawn of her own. The captain smirks and she copies that as well.

The beating Wren took last night is only evident by light cuts on her arms, some bruising on her feet and a particularly big bruise on her jaw that's developed many different shades of green. But it's still a massive improvement from last night. The bacta did its work and Rex is amazed by the transformation. The kid doesn't even look tired.

Wren turns and runs ahead to the fire. Rex notices she's favoring her right foot as she runs, but not enough to really concern him. He picks up his helmet and the bag he used as a willow, before he rolled off it at some point that is. The captain follows Wren to the fire. He notices the Jedi and Doren Gefar having a conversation at the leader's fire. By the looks of it, Gefar is yelling at the Jedi.

"What's happening?" The captain asks his men as he sits on the last free rock around the fire. Wren cheerfully bounces over and plops down on the ground across from him. She warms her bare feet with the flames by sticking them in the air, wiggling her toes with a big satisfying smile. Fives follows Rex's gaze and gets what he's asking.

"The general is trying to get the names of everyone involved in the beating," the trooper explains bitterly. Wren curiously looks up when she hears her name. "But I don't think the leader will give the names up if he knows them."

"Blast," Rex mutters.

No one talks. Rex looks down and catches Wren carefully watching the leader, with that same blank yet thoughtful expression he caught her watching the city with. Her look tells him there's is so much more to this then they think. Wren knows why the people hate her. The stories she could tell if she spoke Basic. But the thing Rex doesn't understand is she doesn't look scared, mad or hateful for what happened. The only emotion Rex can read from her is, pity? Wren quickly looks away when she notices Rex watching and starts eating rations from a can that Kix handed her as if nothing happened.

Echo offers Rex a can of slop and he absently accepts it. Now the captain can't help but think there's more to what happened last night. When he first thought about why the Locunians hate Wren, he wrote it off as being because she looks different. But that doesn't make sense anymore. There has to be a bigger reason for why they tried to kill her.

The captain looks back at Gefar's camp to find the Jedi have left. He makes a mental note to question Skywalker on what happened before he starts wolfing his can of slop down.

The hot fire feels good after Rex spent the night without the blanket that he gave to Wren (not that a blanket would've helped much when he's still wearing armor, but it keeps the worth in). He's just starting to get the feeling back in his legs when Hotshot (a rookie trooper just assigned to the five-o first) approaches them.

"Sir," the shiny stands strait and salutes, Rex waves him off. "The general wants everyone ready to move in an hour." He looks down at the kid all the men are probably talking about. "And he was wondering about a status report on the kid." Kix takes care of that part.

"Tell the general she'll make a full recovery, but has to take it easy for a few days. I can't afford to use another vile of bacta on her so the rest will have to heal naturally" Kix informs Hotshot. Rex guesses that makes sense. The bacta Kix has is heavy duty stuff, meant for grown troopers on the battlefield, not for little girls.

"Right." Hotshot salutes again and leaves to find the general.

"Guess that's it for the nice relaxing part of the day," Fives says as he quickly finishes his can off. The rest do the same and begin to pack up their part of camp. Wren sees the sudden change and starts to eat faster, which is supper fast for someone her size. She stands up when she's done and runs up to Rex. He and the other troopers stop what they're doing and look down at the girl. Wren looks up at Rex and gives him the smirk she's mastered by now.

"Ingo kepta, I'm-captain-Rex." Wren gives him a short curtsy and runs off into the crowed before the captain can react.

"Hay! Wren! Where are you-" to late, she's gone, again. Rex considers going after the kid but decides he probably won't even find her. He sighs and picks his helmet up. But he still worries about the girl being alone with the Locunians.

"The people won't try anything, she'll be fine," Kix assures them as he watches where she disappeared into the crowed, but he doesn't sound completely sure.

* * *

**Just**** to let you guys know, the voola in chapter 4 is from one of my favorite video game franchises, ratchet and clank. I think the actual game was "ratchet and clank: tools of destruction". It's actually called Sargassian Troglosaur, or simply a Troglosaur, look them up or play the game, they're really cool and I couldn't resist putting them in. And you guys already figured out where the little white creatures playing in the trees were from :D**

**oh, and don't forget to Review! (I need to ask right?)**


	6. Chapter 6

They start on the road an hour after Wren ran off, when everything is finally packed and ready to move. There's still no sign of the red eyed girl, and Rex gets a little nervous. But the captain won't admit that, and it isn't obvious just by looking at him, the helmet helps.

The captain walks with most of the other troopers in the middle of the giant party, right next to the tank. He keeps his eyes open for the kid and scans the moving crowds every few minuets, trying to pick out a flash of white hair in the sea of raven black, (the main hair color for Locunians).

The morning coolness starts to disappear as Locuna's star gets higher in the sky, but the thin layer of fog that's been on the ground all morning doesn't leave. As it gets warmer, more creatures come out for the day;Rex especially notices the little white creatures from yesterday, playing in the trees as usual. He can't tell if these are completely new animals or if the ones from yesterday are following them.

No one talks; the only sounds are the combined shuffling of about three hundred feet on the road, the faint squeaks of one hundred wagon wheels, the forest's own mysterious sounds and the loud mechanical movements of the walker. Even with all that, the lack of conversation leaves an eerie silence in the air. And it's why everyone around suddenly jumps when Fives's foot comes into hard contact with a big rock on the road and he yells, "blast!" He makes a loud groaning noise after as he tries to suppress the pain.

Echo chuckles at him now that the silence has been broken. "It helps to watch where you're going," he says.

Fives hops on one foot as he shakes off the impact, grumbling something among the lines of "_shut up_ Echo."

The peeved trooper looks ahead down the seemingly endless road when he finally recovers. "How long will this escort take?" he asks in an annoyed voice as he places his beaten foot back onto the ground. Now that Rex thinks about it, he doesn't know how long the trek will take, he never actually asked the general. Echo goes deep in thought for a moment.

"About, six days if we're fast, five if we're lucky, or seven if we're not" Echo finally tells him. "But Locunian days _are_ longer," he adds as if an afterthought.

Fives lets out an exasperated sigh, "Don't know about you troopers, but I'd rather be blasting clankers right now" the clone stats, resting his rifle on a shoulder.

Rex wasn't really paying attention. He watches the general and Tano as they lead the party far up at the front. The captain makes a decision and quickens his pace to catch up with the Jedi. He gets some glares from the Locunians as his passes by, but nothing as bad as last night. They look away when Rex spots them and act like nothing happened. The clone isn't too concerned with them trying anything right now but he still doesn't trust them.

"Sir," Rex greets when he finally gets to the front. Skywalker and Tano both turn and see him approach.

"Morning Rex" Tano says as the captain starts walking beside them. The trooper removes his helmet and nods to the padawan. He decides to get right to the point.

"Did you get the names?" Rex asks the general. The clone doesn't think they did, but he has to ask anyway. Skywalker frowns at the question.

"Gefar _claims_ he doesn't have any information about the attack." The general keeps his eyes fixed on a point down the road. "He also claims that _if_ he knew who the attackers where, he couldn't tell. Apparently they have come law about it." Skywalker is trying to keep the tension from his voice. And Rex realizes that his own fists are clenched into tight balls, he relieves the muscles and opens them up again.

"That's not right." The captain finally says. Skywalker nods in agreement.

"But there's nothing I can do right now. The leader is protected, by his _position_, and by his _people_. Remember, Locuna isn't part of the republic." The commander points out as if she read their thoughts and wanted to remind them of the whole situation. The three fall silent for a while. Rex takes the time to watch the forest and let their conversation sink in.

He finally turns and looks at the Locunians. They talk, laugh and help each other with carts that get stuck between rocks and in holes, as if last night never happened. The people seem so innocent and happy. But Rex isn't fooled; he can only see evil that came out last night.

"They're so, _different_," Rex says out loud, putting his thoughts into words, He looks back to the Jedi. "From last night to, _this_." The commander understands what he's saying and nods.

"Locunians are supposed to be really peaceful, that's why Locunia remains neutral in the war," she tells the captain. Rex looks back to the people again. He can't imagine the Locunians being peaceful. Skywalker senses the captain's confusion.

"Before we touched down, Senator Amidala contacted me on the destroyer," he starts. Rex bites down on a smile before it shows. _Of course she did sir_. "She warned me about a rumor going around the Senate." Rex looks at the general. "Supposedly there's some kind of separatist corruption in Locuna's higher classes." Rex's mind immediately travels to the leader's greedy face that makes the captain think he could be best friends with Nute Gunray. "I _think_ the people have been corrupted. That's why they where so aggressive" Skywalker finishes. Rex thinks about it some more as they walk in silence once again.

If the rumor is true then that means it's not only the Locunians against Wren, but the separatists as well. He could be reading the situation wrong, but he makes a mental note to keep an eye on the leader anyway. If the captain finds a reason to take him down, he will.

Locuna's trees get even bigger during the long hours that they walk; their branches start to hang over the road from high above. Leafs the size of Wren filter out the star, leaving little specs of light to dance all over the road. Rex welcomes the cool shade.

Skywalker calls for a small break at a point where the road is the widest. Rex and his men could have kept going but the people's complaints force the general's hand. They aren't used to so much walking.

Rex makes it back to the tank where some of his men are talking. Echo sits on the ground, Fives and Kix lean against one of the tank's legs and Dex is under the tank, doing something with the walker that Rex doesn't understand.

They stop talking when Rex approaches and wait to hear what happened. The captain tells them what Gefar said. He leaves out the part about the rumor because there's Locunians within earshot. Rex can't tell who among them know basic and who doesn't. He doesn't want to tip the leader off.

When Rex is done Fives shakes his head. "There's a law against giving up the names of people who beat kids? That's not right" he looks strait at Rex and shrugs off the tank. "And you're sure there's nothing the general can do?" Rex asked the same question in his head, he already put a lot of thought into this.

"Not right now, but once we get to the city the general is going to-" Rex gets cut off when his helmet is suddenly lifted right off his head, as if by a Jedi power. After a second of extreme confusion, the captain hears giggling and looks up to find Wren hanging onto the tank's leg almost directly over him.

The kid looks down at him with a big, mischievous smile as she holds his helmet in one small hand. The animal skin bag is once again sling over her shoulder; she probably retrieved it from a hiding place before leaving the camp ground.

Rex and his men watch in shock as Wren effortlessly climbs up to the leg's joint and sits on the little ledge it makes, just her size. The captain doesn't know how she got up there without him knowing.

"I found her, sir," Echo jokes as he gets to his feet. Rex doesn't hear the trooper through the slight ringing in his ears. He doesn't like the thought of a kid playing on the giant weaponized vehicle.

"Wren" Rex calls up to her. She looks down at him and tilts her head to the side. The captain points a stern finger to the ground. "Get down" he demands. "And hand over my helmet" he points to his bucket. They're close enough to the front lines that an attack could happen any moment, and he needs his helm if that happens.

Wren's smile grows. Even with the language barrier, Rex is positive she knows what he meant. But the girl taunts him by playing with the helmet, tossing it into the air, then elegantly and effortlessly catching it with one hand.

"Wren" the captain warns. He can hear a few of his men trying not to laugh behind his back, including Dex, who got out from under the tank to see what's happening.

"I'm-captain-Rex, sonba fona" the girl says as she places his helm on her lap. She starts to hum and playfully swing her legs which hang off the side. She has no attention of coming down anytime soon.

Rex sights. "_No_, it's just, _captain Rex_" he clearly explains. "Now, get, down." Wren watches him blankly and raises an eyebrow.

"Okay, fine, if you won't come down, I'll come up," he finally says after loosing a short stare down. He puts his hands on the tank's leg and finds the first foot hold. But before the captain can start, Wren realizes what he's doing and jumps right off.

"Whoa!" a clone exclaims as the girl lands like a cat only two yards away from the group of troopers. Rex is surprised by the jump, she isn't even hurt.

Wren stands up strait, still clutching his helmet. After getting over the shock, Rex holds his hand out towards her. "Hand it over" he says. Wren looks at him then back to the helmet, an idea plainly growing in her eyes.

The girl curiously lifts the helmet up and places it over her small head. She looks around. The bucket is too big for her small head, so it keeps sliding down; she has to hold it so the visor lines up with her eyes.

When she gets the hang of holding it right, She looks back at Rex. "Gile sofma figare doma I'm-captain-Rex," she says in a muffled voice. Some of Rex's men start to snigger a little.

"Captain Rex, you look different today. Is that a dress?" Fives asks like it's a legitimate and completely series question. Rex shoots him a glare before putting his attention back to Wren and his helmet. He begins to calmly walk up to her.

"Give it up," he says. Wren jumps back when he reaches for the helm and giggles.

Rex frowns. He feels kind of silly without his helmet when all his men are wearing theirs. Once again, the captain starts to approach her, but not as calmly as before. Wren also starts to back up, pushing the visor up every few seconds.

"Wren, give me my helmet, now" Rex demands in his stern voice, usually reserved for ordering troopers under his command. He's confidant with this tone and filly expects her to listen, even with the language barrier. Troopers always listen to him; he is the captain after all. But this kid, (Rex realizes), this kid isn't a trooper; she ignores the captain and keeps backing away from him, almost like a game of tag.

"I'm-captain-Reeeeex jibie jibie bo bo," Wren taunts, Rex is the only trooper that doesn't find that funny.

He shakes his head. "No, it's just, _Rex_," the trooper explains, not bothering with the captain part anymore. "R-eeee-x" he sounds it out for the girl. She stares at him for a long time.

"Rex," Wren finally copies as she tilts her head to the side, grabbing the helm when it slides down to realign it with her eyes. "Rex," she repeats.

Rex smiles to the fact that she's finally getting it as his men go completely quiet. The captain nods. "That's right, just, Rex" he says triumphantly.

"Rex Rex Rex," Wren chirps playfully. The captain nods at her. "Rex Rex Rex, I'm-captain-Rex." his smile drops and he frantically shakes his head no.

"No no, that's not-" the captain starts to explain again but gets cut off by the girl's giggling. If she wasn't wearing his helmet, Rex would have been able to see an evil smile grow across her face. But the captain senses something anyway and gives her a suspicious look.

"I'm-captain-Rex I'm-captain-Rex I'm-captain-Rex" Wren happily chants. Rex stops walking as all his men burst out laughing. She stops as well and smiles underneath at the look on his face. The captain is positive she's saying it wrong just to see his reaction. And he's right.

"Stop encouraging her!" Rex yells back to the laughing clones and takes his eyes off the helmet thief for a moment. They all go dead quiet under the weight of his steely glare and stay that way.

Rex turns back to Wren and gives her the same glare that shut his men up. Nothing happens; the girl is unaffected by his look and keeps chanting "I'm-captain-Rex" like a broken holo-vid.

The captain drops the glare and looks to the sky between the holes in the leaves. He lets out a heavy sigh and rubs the back of his bald head. Alpha's ARC training _never_ could have prepared him for dealing with kids. They are nothing like his soldiers, men specially trained to follow his commands to the letter.

This takes the highly respected captain right out of his preferred elements of leadership and war and throws him into this new element that makes no sense and leaves him extremely confused on what to do. This is the element of an innocent and carefree kid who does whatever the force she wants without thinking of consequences.

Rex has been out of his comfort zone plenty of times before, not like this but he figures its close enough to have the same learning curves. so he decides to handle this like how he handled those times. Its a practice the general himself taught the captain when everything else fails. He's gonna have stray from the safe path of clone guidelines, and just, _improvise_.

The captain slowly takes his eyes off the patchy sky and looks down at a dangerously silent Wren with a knowing expression on his face, as if asking her if she wants to continue. Her body language shifts from playful and jumpy to 'why are you looking at me like that?' in only a second. A small smirk grows onto Rex's face.

"Okay, that's it," Rex says casually, fully knowing that Wren can't understand him. She watches the captain with growing caution. "You had your fun." Without warning, the captain makes a mad dash for the kid, hoping to catch her off guard. She lets out a high pitched scream that only a little girl can make and starts running down the road.

"Blast! Wren!" Rex goes after her and his beloved helmet he once had to retrieve from the belly of a dead rancor that tried to eat him, (it took him a vary long time to get ride of the stains, even longer to get rid of the smell).

The girl's bare feet make soft but fast patting sounds as she slams them down on the packed dirt to propel herself on. His helm violently jiggling on her head as she flies off, forcing her to hold it in place and sacrificing some speed in the posses. Her half braided hair sticks out the bottom of the helm and flaps around behind her like a white blur.

Rex quickly realizes that this is what Wren wanted all along. She only runs fast enough to stay just out of his reach to keep the chase alive, but the kid still runs like there's nothing in the galaxy that can catch her.

The whole time she's ether screaming when Rex gets to close, roaring with laughter or yelling 'I'm-captain-Rex' like a war cry at the top of her lungs for all to hear. It's the happiest Rex has ever seen her; he realizes that's not really competing with a lot of good times but still. The captain can't really explain it, but it feels good to see her happy for once. That's never happened to Rex before, but he won't admit it to anyone and he still needs to get the helm back.

Rex can hear laughing as they run past groups of troopers. "Wren!" He calls. "This isn't funny!" It isn't for him anyway.

The girl effortlessly weaves through the crowds just like she did last night as the general went after her, ducking past the smallest gaps that only open for a split second before closing back up. Rex has to annoyingly push through those same crowds, usually getting yelled at in Locua.

Rex just finishes pushing past the last Locunian in his way when he notices something, his eyes go wide. "Wren! Wait!" The trooper yells as he doubles his speed. The girl isn't listening.

"I'm-captain-Rex! I'm-captain-Rex! I'm-captain-Rex!" Wren runs blind with the oversized helm. So when she makes it to the front of the giant party, she doesn't see where shes going and manages to crash right into the back of Skywalker's leg, falling back onto her butt with a soft thud. Rex stops running a few feet away and stares in shock.

Skywalker and the commander both turn around and find Wren sitting in the ground, wearing Rex's helmet. The girl moans something in Locua and rubs her side.

"Hello little one," the general says. Wren freezes as she recognizes the voice. She slowly looks up at whom the voice belongs to and readjusts his helmet to see.

The kid instantly recognizes Skywalker and jumps up. She runs back to a hesitant Rex to hide behind his legs. The captain looks down at her in surprise. One moment she's running away from him and the next she's using him as a shield.

Skywalker and Tano look up at the captain. He feels the weight of their questioning stares on his exposed face. He understands how strange they must look.

"This is the kid from last night," he explains, then pauses awkwardly. "Um, her name's Wren." Wren peeks around his leg at the mention of her name and carefully watches Skywalker. He feels weird standing in front of the two Jedi with Wren using him as a protective wall. "Um, Wren snatched my helmet and ran off," he explains. "She was playing and didn't see where she was going. Sorry sir," Rex hesitantly apologizes. "It won't happen again."

The general walks up to them and knells down to Wren's level. He smiles at her. There's a long pause when finally; Wren points a small finger at the general.

"Divin ju" the girl says in a flat voice that doesn't sound quite natural to Rex. The general frowns as she retreats back behind the clone. Rex tries moving to the side but she follows him like a moving shield. The captain sighs; he's starting to think she might just be shy.

Skywalker's smirk slowly starts to come back as Rex sees an idea spread across his face. Wren sees it too and once again peeks out from behind the captain. Skywalker waves his hand in front of her and the helm lifts right off her head, revealing a confused and awed Wren as her eyes follow the flying helmet's every move.

Wren has obviously never seen a Jedi use the force before. She watches his helmet with that growing curiosity that can only belong to a child. She slowly starts to follow the bucket on the ground, no longer caring if the Jedi can see her or not. She reaches for his helm only to see it lift a little higher into the air. Rex can just reach out and grab it if he wanted but Wren is too short to make a capture.

After a moment of confusion, Wren finally looks to the Jedi when she realizes he's the one that is somehow making the helmet magic. She then looks up at Rex as if asking for an explanation. He looks down at her and shrugs like it's a first for him too.

She puts her focus back onto the helmet; which has is starting to descend to her eye level. It drifts away from her whenever she gets close to it, like magnets with the same charge.

Wren stalks the helmet like a predator. Her red eyes almost glowing in the patches of sunlight as she moves closer and closer to her pretend pray, complacently lost in her own little world.

The girl leaps forward without warning, her little arms outstretched to grab the helm. But she's only able to brush her fingertips off the side before it doubles in speed and races of. It doesn't stop her though and she sprints after the strange floating helm without hesitation.

Rex smirks at her sheer determination. He realizes that Tano began helping her master at some point, combining her power with his to help him move the helmet. They manipulate the helm to move in random zigzag patterns going up and down the road, ultimately forming one giant loop with Wren running behind it like a shadow.

The troopers watch her as she runs past, cheering her on and making bets on how long it'll take her to catch it. Rex notices that the Locunians are completely ignoring her, something they have been doing since last night. They avert their eyes as she goes past.

The more loops Wren makes the more risks she takes in her jumps and her lunges for the target. The captain has no clue how there can be so much energy in one kid. It's like she doesn't have an end.

Wren is on her third loop when she gets her chance. Once again she runs down the road away from them, with that same joy as being chased by Rex. Like tag, but this time shes it. Wren runs past the tank and the men around it cheer her on. This time Wren anticipates the movement of his helm as its about to make the turn back. She jumps up onto the small cart it circles around and uses her momentum to leap off the cart and into the air, and tackling his poor helmet to the ground.

The general and the commander both drop their hands and look at each other, satisfied with their work. From far away they can see Wren jumping up and down, triumphantly waving his bucket in the air like it's a trophy. She looks so proud of herself. Rex lets a little smirk grow on his face before quickly suppressing it.

"That was fun and all, but I still need to get my helmet back." The captain mentions as he watches the kid put it back on. He takes his eyes off Wren to find both the Jedi looking at him.

"May the force be with you," Skywalker finally says, a knowing look on his face. He smirks. "You're going to need it."

"That's just great," Rex mumbles as he rubs the back of his exposed head.

But the captain doesn't get the chance to retrieve his bucket because just then, he realizes three things he should have picked up on a long time ago. The first thing is that all the sounds of the forest have stopped, leaving an eerie silence in its place. There's no chirping from high up in the trees or calls from animals deep within anymore.

The second thing is that the little white creatures that were playing all day have disappeared from the branches, as well as all the other creatures Rex should be able to see.

And the third thing is the fog; white grey mist as thick as smoke bleeds out through the trees and splashes out over the road. Deep enough to cover the bottom half of his legs now. It's like the more Rex notices the faster everything changes. The trooper can't tell when it happened; but the cool shade had become cold at some point and the bright sunlight from all day has turned into a duel glow.

Others pick up on the changes as well and go quiet, including the Jedi. He makes eye contact with the general's; they're both thinking the same thing. Something is definitely wrong.

The fog gets thicker and deeper as the minuets go by, making it harder and harder to see. A dead silence has filly spread through the people now, building the tension to a point where Rex has to remind himself to breath.

Someone (a female Locunian Rex can't see through the mist) breaks the silence and screams. The captain tenses for half a second before running off with the Jedi to find its source.

He listens listens carefully as they push past the hesitant crowds. As if on cue, the screams are followed by wiled and sharp laughing sounds coming from just within the forest in all directions. Rex recognizes it as the same laughing they heard in the forest yesterday. Whatever is out there has been following them.

He and all his men go into battle mode, ready for anything. Rex catches a glimpse of the tank as he runs through the fog. It disappears behind him and he realizes that he should be running past Wren right now, but he can't see her.

The screams and the laughing intensify, spreading fear to the confused Locunians; they start running in all directions. The running stirs up some fog, reveling the course of everyone's fear.

The screams belong to the old Locunian woman that helped translate for Fives and Echo last night. She squirms in between the jaws of a giant beast. The people back away from her and the creature, leaving a giant, empty space all around it.

The woman is going to die; Rex has seen enough death to realize when it's too late for someone. The creature's multiple black fangs have gone right through her body. Locunian blood pours out of her and stains the animal's light grey, mated fur. It thrashes its giant horned head and even more bright blood splatters everywhere. The woman's screams quickly cease as she stops moving and hangs limply in its jaws like a broken doll.

The captain, the nearby troopers and the Jedi surround the beast completely. Rex had already brawn his blasters without even thinking at some point. He takes a half second to welcome the familiarity of the weapon's mettle in his hands. But it's the reflex of a true soldier that comforts him, if you see danger, you automatically draw weapons. Many of his men have that same instinct and already hold their blasters. Other men don't have it yet and are fumbling for their firearms right now. But it's not long until the beast has about fifty blasters expertly aimed at it's head. The Jedi stand by with their lightsabers lit, ready for action. But no one dares shoot it, fearing that would set it off.

The white beast loses interest in the dead Locunian and lets her fall out of its mouth, making a loud thud as she hits the ground. Its eyes then fall on them with a scary mixture of curiosity, viciousness, and hunger. Taking more interest in the clones showing hesitation, most of which are shinys. Rex just knows it can smell the weak and afraid, that's how it picked the old woman out. But it also watches the Jedi more carefully then the others, picking them out as the strongest. Everything it does screams predator, and it's never good to corner a predator. A deep, laughing growl starts to emit from within the creature's throat, instantly making the hairs behind the captain's neck stand on end.

Everything after that happens too fast, like a blur. Rex is about to give the order to fire when to his horror, he hears more screams. He whips his head around towards the source to find more creatures pouring out the forest from all over, attacking the panicked and nearly defenseless crowds. Rex counts eight in the pack so far, but its hard to keep track since they all look the same with their black grey fur, like streaks of smoke against the white mist. The only exception being the one they're surrounding, with its white grey color that blends into the fog.

The beasts tare through the crowds, picking Locunians off one by one as they go. The troopers do their best to hold the creatures off but are failing without the proper numbers. That's strategy, drawing all the forces to one side as the real attack comes to the other. Waiting for the fog to conceal themselves then attacking.

"These things are smart" Rex realizes out loud as he gives himself a good mental kick for falling for it. The creature they surround looks at him with a satisfying glint in its eye, proud for being the diversion.

The Jedi take most of the troopers and run off to help the people, leaving Rex with the few remaining clones behind to deal with the original. The captain hears more unnerving laughter and looks to the side of the road. He spots two creatures coming strait at them from the forest on their right. Like shadows out of light they burst through the fog, snarling and laughing.

The creatures blindside them before Rex can warn the others, tarring through his troopers with black teeth, horns and claws, adding to the screams already in the air.

"Fall back and reform your lines!" The captain yells over the chaos as he tries to restore order in his men. But just then, the creature they had surrounded takes the opportunity to pounce on an unsuspecting clone only feet from where the captain stands. The trooper is soundlessly knocked back with the beast on top of him, its claws digging in as his screams come out and he tries to get free. Rex starts blasting the animal, making black scorch marks on its flawed wiled fur. But the beast doesn't fall, it doesn't even slow down.

The trooper is already dead; his screams died down long ago. The beast pulls its blood red claws out of the body and turns its attention onto Rex now. Bearing it's black bloody teeth as it snarls at him.

Blasting the beast might not have stopped it, but he did get it's attention. It starts to creep towards Rex like how Wren stalked his helmet. He's finding it hard to tell where the beast stops and the fog starts, it's white fur practically morphing with the fog as it's long tail flicks from side to side like a lightwipe, making the fog swirl around it like smoke.

These creatures are beautiful, Rex wildly observes as it stares him down. Most of the animals on Locuna are beautiful, but not in the same sense. These creatures are beautiful in the same way a bottle of poison or a lightsaber are beautiful, because they're all deadly.

He cautiously backs away. Running won't work and blasting it more will get him pounced on. He mentally kicks himself for getting its _undivided attention_. The beast goes into a crouch and Rex tenses up, ready for the strike. He has a small thought about how only minuets ago he biggest problem was a little playful girl who snatched his helmet and now he's about to be eaten by a giant creature. But to his surprise, he doesn't. Instead the beast jumps back as it gets hit by multiple blaster bolts from the side. It hisses at his men as they come out of the mist and charge at the creature in formation, concentrating fire on its horned head. It lets out a mixture of angry growls and laughing as it retreats.

Rex starts to figure it out. The blaster bolts are like little stinging bugs to the giant beasts, two of them are about the size of their tank after all. So one or two bolts are nothing to them. But if there's enough stinging bugs, then it's a problem.

The creature runs off into the crowds, evaporating into the mist and chaos when Rex and his men can't keep up with it anymore.

The troopers near by crowd around Rex. They make sure he's alright and wait for their orders. Rex moves past them and finally gets a good look around. They stand on a bit of a hill near the end of the road, where all the carts and wagons finally end.

The places he can see through the mist all look like battle zones. Bodies littered all over the road. The troopers all to scattered and separated to do any good, they fire at the dark creatures when they get a clear shot and help the people best they can but that's it. The Jedi both have their hands full with beasts, it looks like the general already killed one or two, but Tano is struggling. And the tank drivers are doing their best to fire at the creatures without hitting the people. Panicked Locunians run in all directions, most being chased by creatures. Rex spots Fives, Echo, Hotshot and a few other clones all the way on the other end of the road as they're trying to corral people further up it, evacuating them to be safe and out of the way. But they're having trouble getting to everyone.

The captain turns to his men and quickly divides them into two groups, he points to the smaller group. "Help evacuate the people down the road, get them out of here." He turns to the other group as the first runs off. "We're going to drive the creatures down the other way, hopefully we'll separate the people from the threat, lets go!"

Rex leads his men through the panicked crowds as they run after group one. his plan is to start at the top of the road where he saw Fives and Echo and lead the charge down it so they catch all the creatures. His men obediently follow him, stopping for the occasional assist, shooting at creatures, then gesturing for the groups to follow them. They try not to get too sidetracked as they run through the length of the battle zone. The mist is too thick to see everything, but Rex can hear the laughing as he runs past creatures, and he can see the familiar blue light of blaster fire pock in and out of the mist, like lightning in the storm clouds. He only looses two men on the way.

Rex runs up to Fives and Echo when they finally reach the other end while his men get ready. They look surprised to see him. Or, he realizes, surprised to see that he still doesn't have his helmet.

"Tell the men to follow us behind the line, evacuate everyone who comes through. Work fast and get them out of the way." He orders, they both nod and run off to relay orders. Rex jogs to his place at the head of the clone V pattern that spreads across the road with enough gaps to let the people through. "Let's go lads!" The captain calls as he starts the blind charge into the mist.

They quickly find their first beasts as they pounce out and onto the Locunians like they're play toys. There's more then Rex originally counted, maybe fifteen, mayby more.

"Blast the heads!" A clone yells as they open fire. The creatures hiss at them and try to charge, they don't get too far with the concentrated blaster fire, always turning and retreating further down the road. Clones behind the line gesture for the people to run to them. Screaming Locunians, men woman and children, flood past like a water fall. His men grab the injured and help guide them to safety. The whole time Rex never breaks their pace, always moving forward.

The battles seem more intense without his helmet. The smell of blood is stronger, the sounds aren't slightly muffled like how they sometimes are in a helmet, and Rex can feel the wind off his face as the people run by him. Giving the captain an overall exposed sensation that he doesn't like.

Creatures keep charging only to be turned back by their fire. They start to get a snowball effect as more clones meet with the line and join in the charge. A few of them even have z-6 rotary blasters, adding to the line's power and letting them speed up their pace. More and more beasts try to attack them as they too become more and more concentrated.

Rex spots Ahsoka and her master in a vicious battle with four of the beasts. But it isn't really a battle, all they can do is dodge the creature's attacks. They're just starting to struggle when some of the troopers open fire on the beasts. The four beasts get away from the Jedi and lunge for the line. "Blast them!" Rex yells as he starts shooting as well. The creatures growl at them and run off after realizing that a sworn of blaster bolts kind of hurt.

The general nods to Rex as they both take up a spot at the front. The line finally reaches the tank that marks the half way point on the road. They shoot at the beasts attacking it until they run off. Dex is happy to see them through the cracked glass of the drivers pit. The back opens up when they get closer and ten to fifteen Locunians come running out. They make a break for the line. Dex and his men all abandon the tank to join them.

It's at that point when all the creatures finally give up and retreat down the road, ignoring the last of the Locunians and clones as they run past towards the line. Rex stops their charge when an injured clone limps out of the fog and towards them. He leads a scared group of Locunian woman. His arm is draped over ones shoulder as she helps him walk, his free hand is clutching a shaky blaster rifle. All of them have looks of horror on their faces, they've seen things. They run through the line and nearly collapse. Troopers catch all of them before they fall. The injured trooper pushes the medics away and finds Rex's eyes.

He lost his helmet at some point; blood drips down his forehead and mixes into his eyes. "This is the last of them." He gasps, "There's no one left." Rex respectfully nods to the soldier as they carry him away. The captain looks ahead into the fog. He can see creatures through the mist like black shadows. Lingering on the road, and waiting for a chance to attack.

"We're too exposed here," the general says as he looks into the forest. A clone scout hears him and steps forward.

"Sir" he salutes, "the fog only covers this part of the road." He gestures back the way they came. "It ends just past the wagons." Skywalker nods.

"Start moving the people out," he orders the clones behind the line. They get to work, helping the injured to their feet and guiding them down the road. The general looks to Rex.

"We'll cover the retreat" Rex says before turning his attention onto the line.

"We, are, leaving! Keep your eyes ahead and do _not_ break the line! Stop _everything_ that comes through that fog! No one else is dying today! Let's go!" he yells. The line titans up as they start moving back.

The dark beasts follow them. They stay far enough away to be hidden in the mist, but the captain knows they're there. They don't try to attack, Rex would prefer it if they did because the tension makes the men nervous. And they have the man power to fend them off now anyways.

The mist becomes thinner and thinner as they get near the end. The beasts stop following them and hang back with clear frustration; they don't want to leave the mist, it's their best weapon.

Rex only relaxes when they finally exit the white and he sees Locuna's shining star again. He and his men all start to breathe and relax the line now that the danger has past. The men start to laugh about it to try and shake the shock off while Rex looks up and shields his eyes from the bright light, enjoying the warmth.

"Now I just need to get my bucket back" The captain mumbles as he realizes that he's right back to square one, _again_.

* * *

**If you want more about my story then I have some stuff on my pinterest (find on profile) that you might like, including a picture of a voola, and a picture I found that kind of looks like the beasts of the mist, sort of anyways.**

**If you saw a mistake feel free to tell me, I'm dyslexic so spellchecking can go right over my head sometimes.**

**Oh yea! And I wanted to mention that the creatures in the mist sound like a mix between hyenas and lions, and something that hisses (your guess is as good as min)**

**And do we have any artists in the house? Feel free to draw something from my story; I kind of want to see if anyone can draw Wren, or Rex and Wren together. If you need my permission then you have it, but only if I can see it when you're done :D**


	7. Chapter 7

The misty area covering the road strongly resembles a large dome from outside its reach. The mist literally just, _stops_. As if a giant particle shield has been slapped right on top to keep the pale air neatly bottled up from them. It doesn't seem natural to the Captain at all.

Rex stands watch over the edge of the dome along with the few other troopers who don't have any jobs to do. He doesn't think the creatures will come out of their cover any time soon, so there's no real point in watching the mist. But he stands there anyway because not standing there would just feel wrong. And it's not like he's needed elsewhere. Most of his men already moved back to help the injured and protect the people in case of another attack. They have more than enough to handle things. The General's gone to talk with the leader as per his request/demand, and Tano is currently giving General Kenobi a report. All that's left is border patrol.

But the creatures are still a problem, even though they aren't coming out. They have full run over everything inside the mist, including everything they left behind. Rex can spot some of them through the mist every now and then as they trot around the abandoned wagons. The Captain can hear carts getting flipped over as they rummage, looking for people who didn't get to safety. And a shiver runs down his back when he starts hearing the wet crunchy sounds of bodies being eaten. A distinct sound he knew was coming eventually, but was still not prepared.

The outside world is completely unaffected by the dome. The little animals still play in the starbathed trees as the branches and leafs rustle in the cool wind, bringing with them the sounds of the forest's wildlife as if they had never left the Captain's ears.

Fives walks up and stands next to Rex. They both watch the mist dome like a giant, silent fortress.

"What are they?" Fives asks as he folds his arms and watches a black shadow pass by from within. The Captain absently shakes his head.

"No clue," he mumbles, more to himself then to Fives. "Whatever they are, I don't think they're done with us." He looks at Fives when he makes his mind up. "We need to get moving before they attack again."

Fives lets out a small sigh. "I'm sorry sir. But Gefar made it clear that his people won't leave without their belongings," he explains, clearly annoyed by the leader's personality. "So the General ordered us to stand by until the creatures leave."

The Captain looks back to the dome as he mentally calculates how much this may cost them. "That might be too late" he tells the clone. Fives nods in agreement.

"That's what we told the leader, but we can't just make the people move on."

After a few seconds of silence Fives removes his bucket and looks to the Captain; a small smile appearing on his face. "Think about it this way. You can use the extra time to try to get your helmet back from the little imp."

Rex lets out a small, dry chuckle at the thought. But that already weak chuckle quickly dies in his lips as his stomach starts to slowly turn to ice. He tears his eyes off the dome and turns around to scan the crowd of survivors. When he's done he scans the area again, both to make sure he's right, and because he doesn't want to believe that he's right. The Captain doesn't want to believe that someone is missing.

Rex swallows, his mouth dry all of a sudden. He turns back to look out over the ghost town of mist and wagons.

"Where's Wren?" The Captain asks, calmness itself as he keeps his eyes fixed ahead and prays that he's wrong.

Fives freezes for a second. He finally wipes his head to the side and watches Rex with wide eyes, checking to see if the Captain was serious. "I thought you knew," he finally says.

That is it. That is the tipping point for Rex. It's the moment in his head where he goes from worry and hope and dives right down into the depths of panic and worst case scenario calculations.

"Blast!" Rex exclaims as he leans over and snatches a pair of microbinoculars from an unsuspecting clone's hand. He uses them to look deeper into the thick sea of white.

Fives runs back into the crowds without a second thought and starts searching for her; something the Captain doesn't have high hopes for. If Wren was alright then she would have let them know, right?

It's at this point where Rex fully realizes this has been at the back of his mind for a while now. The secret fear that a beast got to Wren when he was busy.

The Captain zooms in with the binoculars and plays with the settings until he finds one that best penetrates the fog. He sees the black grey beasts, scattered all over the road like guards patrolling their base. Some are going back into the forest now that the fun is over. They drag many of the deceased in with them. People whose faces will never be seen again after they disappear behind the trees. Rex finds it hard to look away from the blank faces. He gets the sense that the dead are watching him. But Wren isn't one of them. So he forces himself to look away and zooms deeper into the fog.

Fives comes back with Hotshot following close behind. They stop behind Rex and take a second to catch their breaths.

"She's not here," Fives says. Rex's stomach tightens. He doesn't look back at the two clones as he keeps his eyes on the road ahead.

"Check again," he tells them. Fives and Hotshot exchange quick looks with each other before looking back to their Captain.

"Sir," Fives starts, "she's _not_ here. We _couldn't_ have missed her." Rex doesn't respond for a long time.

"I don't see a body," the Captain finally says, his last excuse, but he knows it's not a good enough excuse.

Rex is about to put the binoculars down when he catches a small flash of light, so fast he had doubts it was even real until it happened again, and again. The Captain wouldn't have been able to see them without the binoculars. He zooms in on its site. The flashes are coming from just above the tank's shadowy outline. The microbinoculars won't zoom in enough for him to tell much else. But he knows the flashes aren't normal, they're signals.

"_Someone's_ still in there," the Captain says as he holds the binoculars out to Fives. The trooper takes them and looks through them. "On the tank, you see that?" Rex directs. The change in his face tells the Captain when he spots the flashes. He finally nods and passes the binoculars over to Hotshot.

"Orders sir" Fives asks. Rex thinks. The beasts are just starting to leave. If they go back in now the creatures will all come back. They _should_ wait, but if they can smell fear like Rex believes, they might find the survivor and it will be too late.

"Get the General," Rex finally orders as a verbal afterthought. Fives nods and runs off.

"Sir, you should see this," Hotshot says as he gives the microbinoculars back to Rex. He looks through them and finds the tank. The flashes are getting faster and sloppy, showing panic. They quickly die in the mist, no more signals.

"Blast!" Rex shoves the binoculars into the unsuspecting Hotshot's hands and starts searching for his helmet before realizing he still doesn't have it. He forgets about his bucket and digs into a pouch on his belt, pulling out his last droid popper and tossing it to Hotshot. The trooper catches it with extreme confusion on his face.

"Sir?" he starts.

"Watch my back, keep radio silence at all times. Throw this in if I give a signal." Rex tells the hesitant trooper, shaking off the feeling that these might be the last orders he will ever give. Hotshot looks from the binoculars, to the droid popper then to the Captain as if he were solving a puzzle.

"_Sir_?" he says in a voice of growing comprehension, "what are you-." Too late, Rex had timed the creature's movements and picks that exact time to charge into the mist. He hears Hotshot's shouts as the cold white envelops him completely, like jumping into a pool of freezing water.

Hotshot doesn't follow him. Looking back; Rex can see the faint shadow that marks where the trooper still stands in shock. The outside sounds quickly become muffled as Rex travels deeper into the fog, bringing back that unnerving silence that he didn't miss.

Rex sticks to the side of the road, occasionally ducking behind a cart when a beast walks by him. They're too distracted with their food to properly smell the clone Captain. He hopes it stays that way. He makes his way further down the road as if it were an enemy camp, because that's what it feels like to him.

The mist works in Rex's favor now that the chaos and screaming is over, his near white armor helping him blend in better than the grey black creatures ever could. He has avoiding them down to a fine pattern now that the advantage is his. See flash of shadow, duck behind wagon, wait for it to pass then keep moving.

Rex feels the tension build as he nears the tank. One slip up and he's dead. No second chances, no one to fall back on if he fails, no, only himself. There have been troopers who cracked under presser like this; but Rex will not be one of them.

The clone Captain counts his steps and guesses he should see the walker's shadow any second now. He shifts a hand closer to the blaster on his right side. Not that his heavy blaster pistols world actually _help_ if he's spotted, but the move gives him a false security that keeps him moving.

The silence gets destroyed by an ear-splitting howl coming from just ahead. Rex slides under a cart as five creatures run past him and towards the tank, adding to the howls and laughter.

They found something, Rex realizes. He gets back up and follows the herd of creatures. They approach the walker but there's no one on it. Rex only has time to silently swear before he has to duck behind the closest cover available, an overturned cart. Its baskets knocked over and the red herbs inside spilled all over the ground. Rex kneels down in the strange herbs. Their strong spicy smell burns his nostrils and forces him to breath with his mouth (a problem he wouldn't have if he had his bucket). Rex figures the spicy sent masks his own because they should have caught him by now, since they're so close.

The beasts frantically search the area around the tank, smelling every inch of the ground. Rex figures they're trying to get a trail. They push over carts to look under them. Some are too close to him for comfort.

It seems to Rex like they're all there, the whole pack. Except for the white one, (Rex realizes with a new bad feeling growing in his stomach). The only one that he managed to _personally_ tick off is off his radar.

"That's just great," he mutters.

The Captain looks back the way he came and raises his arm in a fist, knowing Hotshot is watching him through the microbinoculars. Two seconds later a loud bang echoes down the road accompanied by the dime glow of the droid popper going off.

The creatures hear it and look past him towards the disturbance, their ears at point. They waste no time and run off towards his distraction. Rex holds his breath and huddles closer to the cover as the creatures' race past his herb cart on both sides. He feels his heart thumping so loud that he fears they will hear it. If one looks back he'll be spotted and everything will be over. Rex starts breathing again when the last one disappears in the mist, leaving the clone Captain completely alone with the tank.

He stumbles to his feet and runs for the tank. It's obviously been attacked since the last time he saw it. Thick jagged claw marks run down the tank's sides, cutting right through the metal like it was paper. It looks like the beasts were climbing it, like they were trying to claw at whoever took refuge at the top. Maybe they succeeded, Rex wonders with a grim look on his face. He was so close.

He walks around the tank, keeping an eye out for creatures and for clues.

It doesn't take him long. The Captain finds blood, bright Locunian blood on one of the walker's back legs. It looked like a lot of blood until he realizes that it's just smeared down the side. As if someone climbed down the leg and got blood everywhere. Rex can make out small red hand-prints at the top. Wren's size, he realizes. The blood stops at the bottom and doesn't make a trail.

The Captain looks around and realizes the fog has gotten thinner. He can now see a whole two carts away. He scans the immediate area and freezes. An animal skin bag lies forgotten on the ground just within his range of view. He jogs over kneels down to examine it. All doubt that Wren was the survivor vanishes when he recognizes that it's Wren's bag.

Rex can imagine it. The strap has been stained with blood from where she grabbed it after climbing down from the tank. The whole bag seems flattened, as if a beast stepped on it. Rex notices something sharp and covered in blood is sticking out from the side. Whatever it is must have cut the beast's paw because the ground ahead of him had been covered with giant paw shaped blood marks. They lead further down the road and disappear into the mist. Rex sees it as his only real lead and decides to follow the blood trail into the unknown territory that is past the tank. Rex leaves the bag on a wagon so he can find it again and keeps walking.

It's at that moment that Rex realizes he's completely alone now. Even with the microbinoculars, Hotshot can't see this far into the fog. Not that he could have done anything when he could see the Captain. Rex just feels more isolated.

The carts are destroyed, not just knocked over, but smashed to pieces. Ripped to shreds by all the beasts that got pushed into this area by the line.

Rex doesn't see any creatures as he marches down the road. It allows him to move faster without being caught. But he feels his luck running out as he goes even deeper. He should have seen something by now. The diversion shouldn't last this long. He preferred it when he could at lease have a sense of where the beasts were. This full on emptiness is just unnerving.

The paw marks disappear as the blood becomes old. Rex stays his course. He doesn't need the trail to know this is the right way. It is a road after all. A road Rex has had to run up and down all day now.

The fog gets thick again, even thicker then before. Just when Rex was starting to think it was going away for good. It's like all the surrounding mist got sucked into this area. It isn't natural and he doesn't like it.

In the end Rex is only able to see a few feet into the mist. He decides right there and then that he hates fog and will be happy for the rest of his life if he never sees it again.

All his instincts are working overtime. They cream at him to turn back. Never has he had to really go against his instincts. It feels wrong to deny them. But Rex won't go back until he finds the survivor, or the body.

Rex spots something through a thin pocket of mist and stops. He sees a blur, as if through a frosted window. It's too small for a creature and not the right shape for a cart. He walks forward; into the sliver of thin mist, which starts opening up and becomes yet another giant patch of thin mist.

The bluer starts to take on more of a shape as he gets closer. It gains the form of a little girl with white, mist like hair poking out the bottom of a clone helmet. Wren stands in the clearing like a ghost of the fog. She's still wearing his helm, as if she completely forgot about it. She doesn't know Rex is there and stands completely still with her back turned to him and looks off into the distance. Rex can't tell what Wren's looking at but to him, it seems like she's staring off into nothingness. She's too far away for Rex to tell if she's alright, he can barely see her. "Wren" he half yells as he comes closer. He flinches at how loud that sounded. She doesn't turn around.

Rex speeds up but has to stop when he comes to something strange. Something he can only explain as a cart wall. The wall stands four carts tall, two carts thick, and blocks the whole road. He can't walk around it because of the giant rocks at the sides of the road. He can't figure out how this happened. It's like the creatures had stacked the carts up themselves. The only way through is the giant V shape of empty space it makes in the middle. Like a canyon. He can see Wren through the small crack that starts the V at the bottom. The beasts could probably just jump through the top of the V where it opens up some more but Rex can't get up there. He eyes the tinny crack. He could squeeze through or start climbing over carts. Then let every creature around know where he is. He decides on the sneaky approach and starts wiggling his way through the small space.

Rex looks at Wren from time to time, making sure she's still there. The space gets tighter and he quickly gets stuck. Not good. He starts gently pushing the wagon he's stuck against, knowing full well it could easily fall on him if he messes up. Rex puts more strength in his effort and it starts to work. The gap starts opening up. He's almost able to squeeze through when he feels something snap. He takes his hands away from the wagon and watches as it starts swaying. Instead of falling the other way it looms over the trapped Captain. It threatens to fall on him and pin him against the wagons. Rex does his best to push the cart away, frantically fighting to keep it up. But the wagon is too heavy for him to control. In the end it falls on him. Roughly throwing the clone against the wagon behind him and pinning him there. It would have probably killed him if he wasn't wearing his armour. He flinches from the noise and looks around for anything that might have heard the crash. He doesn't hear anything or see anything. But he still has a bad feeling. Rex tries pushing the wagon again to no avail, it's too heavy for him to move. "That's just great" he mumbles to himself. _What a fantastic rescue mission this turned out to be_, he thinks to himself, _Wren is right there but now you can't move_.

He looks back at Wren to make sure she's still there and freezes. It's the white one. How did he not see it? It walks forward, practically materializing out of the cloak of mist. It's already seen Wren and is slowly heading for her. She watches it come. The beast looks at Wren like she's a new chew toy.

Two more come out of the mist as well. Two heavily scared black grey beasts on either side of the white one, their pack leader. These two snarl and laugh as if they couldn't control their madness. But the white one stays calm.

The girl's bare feet make patting sounds as she starts to slowly and carefully back up. She doesn't take her eyes off the beasts but manages to navigate through the fields of dead clones and Locunians without actually seeing them. Her little hands shake. Rex does the calculations. She's fast, but not that fast. If she runs she's dead. If he shoots they will pounce on her.

Rex puts his energy into shoving the wagon off him. But it still doesn't seem to move. Rex doesn't make a sound as he works. He wills the girl to keep backing up, and he curses the beasts. He alternates between trying to squeeze through the crack and trying to push the wagons apart. He never takes his eyes off Wren for a second.

The beasts get restless. They keep looking at their leader, waiting for him to make the first move. The whole time Wren is backing up. All the playfulness from earlier has left her, all that remains is a scared little girl wearing a clone helmet.

Rex is almost free but that doesn't matter. Because almost, is too long. The white beast starts making its move. It starts its uncontrollable laughing. Even more wild then the other two's. It makes Rex shiver. How it can change from that level of calm to the level of uncontrollable viciousness. The other two get rallied up by their pack leader. Not good.

Rex starts punching the wagon even harder. He putts all his strength and helplessness into the wood. Wren's hands shake even more, she doesn't even realize. Her feet start tripping over themselves.

She stumbles and the sudden movement sets them off like a thermal detonator. The white beast launches into a full on charge. The other two follow right behind. Wren watches them come like a little shaking statue. She doesn't run.

"Blast it! Wren!" Rex yells, throwing himself against the wagon. It shakes a little but holds.

"Get away!" Rex hears someone yell. Suddenly, one of the bodies starts to move. It's a clone. He lies at the side of the road halfway between Wren and the advancing beasts. The trooper quickly stumbles to his feet and limps to intercept their charge.

His helmet has cracks and is caked in blood. He holds his bleeding arm where the elbow down is missing. It's amazing that he's still alive.

"Pick on me you pathetic creatures!" he spits as he takes his helmet off and throws it away. Revealing the trooper's righteous face masked in blood, pain, acceptance, and the pure courage of a last stand.

He gets in the line of their charge. "Come on ya stupid mutts! I'm right here!" his horse voice echoes through the road, louder than anything else. The creatures waste no time in taking him down. The white one runs up to him and champs down on his shoulder with a loud crunching sound. The clone cries out. The beast to the right bits down on his legs with another crunch. They both lift the struggling clone into the air.

The creatures laugh and growl through their full mouths. He thrashes for freedom, fighting till the end. "Run," he breathes. That's all he could say before they start the most gruesome game of tug-o-war Rex has ever seen.

The two beasts start pulling their ends. Screams fill the air for the second time that day. this time, cracking and popping sounds follow the screams as his body starts coming apart from the inside. More blood splashes onto the road as they pull harder.

The worse part is that Wren is watching. The creature's attentions are off of her now but she still doesn't move. She watches the clone in frozen horror as he screams over the beast's laughter. Her shaky legs are barely keeping her upright.

Rex is almost through. He's resorted to body checking the wagon, jamming his shoulder into the wood over and over. Each time it shakes free a little more. His heart is beating faster than it has in a long time. He grunts at the wagon in frustration.

"Wren! Snap out of it and run!" the Captain yells. She doesn't turn around. More blood pours out from the clone. His screams start to die but they never truly stop. The clone goes quiet and looks right at Wren. He's nearly gone now, but his eyes tell the girl to run.

Wren doesn't need to see this. Rex slams against the wagon one more time and it finally gives. Rex feels the pressure come off him as the wagon starts swaying again. He takes his chance and dives out through the opened gap seconds before the gap crashes shut again. Rex briefly tags the ground and stumbles into a full on run. He hears a loud crash behind him but doesn't look back to see what it was. He sprints forward and hopes he can get to Wren before the beasts get bored.

Rex hears a new set of cracking sounds and looks back to the brave clone. He's barely alive now. He makes sounds occasionally but that's it. The beasts are putting everything they have into it now. They pull, twist, tug and thrash as hard as they can, laughing and snarling the whole time.

The white beast digs its claws into the ground and gives one last yank with everything it has. The clone's body stretches longer then it was ever supposed to. He lets out one last scream that echoes through the road, so loud that the others probably heard it outside the mist. It's like everything the trooper had left was in that last, desperate cry because when it ends, he's gone. Blood starts pouring out from the cracks between his armour plaits and Rex feels sick.

Wren still hasn't budged. Rex doubles his already doubled speed. He feels his chest burn but doesn't care. He's almost there.

Rex expected the beasts to drop the dead clone and move on to Wren. But they don't stop when he's dead. They keep going. The body keeps stretching. Rex starts hearing wet ripping sounds now. He recognizes it as skin ripping and shivers. And it's at that moment when he comes apart.

As if in slow motion, the clone splits down the middle. He comes apart slowly and graphically. Splashing blood in all directions, some blood even sprays far enough to hit his helmet.

The trooper's limp legs and belly go to the black beast. Everything else, the arms, head, chess, and chess plat break off on the white beast's side. The troopers guts spill onto the ground. His spine is the last thing to separate. It stretches out like an evil, boney tail, connecting the two halves until it finally snaps off the lower half and goes to the white beast. It looks happy about it, as if the clone's spine was a wishbone that he won.

The beast with the legs takes his half and starts another war with the other one. The white beast looks back at Wren with the clone still in its jaws. The spine sways underneath like a cut rope.

Rex's face hardens at the sight. Wren shouldn't see this. The beast freezes and drops his half when he notices Rex. Who now stands behind Wren like a guardian angel. The road is quiet as they as they glare at each other. Without looking away, Rex reaches down and plucks his helmet off Wren's head. She doesn't protest, she doesn't even move. He places the helmet back over his head.

Rex already has a blaster drawn and points it at the white creature. Not that his blasters would be much help against the beast's thick skin but anything is better than nothing. The other two notice the situation and take their original places at ether side of their leader. Rex notices how they're back to the original stand-off, but this time they only stand thirty feet away.

Rex spares a quick glance down at Wren. She's not looking to good. Her arm is bleeding and turning her arm scarlet. She's shaking pretty bad and her face is paler than usual.

"Wren" Rex whispers. He's been trying to come up with a plan ever since he got free of the carts. Preferably a plan that involves getting out alive, but all he can come up with is Wren running and him shooting.

"Wren, you have to-". He freezes and looks back down at her. The girl is a statue. She doesn't even acknowledge him. He frowns. She's deep in shock. The Captain has seen some bad cases of shock in his life. He's willing to bet Wren doesn't even know he's there.

Rex spots movement and looks up at the beasts. The white beast has begun its slow approach once again. The other two follow behind their leader. Rex starts backing up and pulls Wren along with him. She absently starts walking backwards with shaky feet. He wills her not to stumble.

The beasts get closer. These creatures like to savour their kills, Rex realizes. They never just charge right off the bat and kill. They like to approach slowly at first to toy with their prey. But Rex knows they are on the verge of charging.

Rex gets his first good look at the white beast when they're only twenty feet away and the mist doesn't hide them as much. He notices the eyes first. They aren't proportionate to the rest of the beast's size. The beast's eyes are so small that the mist would make it impossible to make them from any further. They're deep red, just like Wren's eyes. But they don't have her glee. What they are is cold and calculating with a spark of unpredictable madness. Okay, Wren might have some unpredictable in her but that's all. The beast's teeth are the next feature Rex finds himself looking at. Black as coal, like its horns, and covered in blood. As long as Wren's forearm and reversed to point inwards. Unlike the small eyes, they are very noticeable from far away.

Rex draws his other blaster and points both at the white beast. Wren's out of it so he'll be thinking for the both of them now. His mind races as he frantically tries to rake up a plan in his head. He goes through protocol, training, facts and instincts all at once.

Running is out because the beasts will charge. Theirs no place they can hide and if they try the beasts will charge. It seems that shooting is all he has right now but that won't work ether. Their skin is to strong, all that would do is peeve them off and make them charge. So how can he make his only real option, an option?

Rex blinks in realization. An idea/theory pops into his head. It's something he can only describe as Skywalker's influence rubbing off on him.

The Captain puts a blaster into its harness and stops backing up. He puts the free hand on Wren's shoulder and guides her to back up behind him. He grasps the one blaster in two hands and takes refined aim position A. its a lot different from his preferred duo blaster style. It feels alien to him, but its best for practiced aiming. And that's what he really needs right now.

Time slows down for him again as he starts doing the math, bringing into account the wind, distance and the size of his target. He's not sure if this will work, but he knows it's their only option. If it doesn't work he'll push Wren on to run. The white beast gives him a suspicious look.

Rex is vaguely aware that Wren has started humming again. Only this time he recognizes the melody as the one he hummed last night.

The white beast glares at him and he glares right back through the notch in his blaster. He feels the tension as the beasts get closer. His aim needs to be perfect. And he has to do it soon because they're about to charge.

The clone Captain prays to nothing in particular as he mentally goes through the last steps listed under near impossible shots. He breathes in, steadies his hand, breathes out, squeezes the trigger, and fires. Just like in target practice.

Rex feels recoil and watches as the bolt flies. It travels fast towards the white beast and sinks into its tiny right eye. The beast recoils and lets out a glass shattering roar of pain.

The mist reacts and goes wild as the beast's roars echo out, as if the mist could feel the creature's pain. It starts swirling around them like the eye of a storm and explodes outwards, disappearing into the forest and leaving the road completely clear. The other two don't charge. They look around in at their exposed cover then to their leader, insure on what to do. They need permission from the leader to attack. But the beast it too caught up in the pain of its missing eye to give the go ahead.

Rex wastes no time. His scoops the distant Wren up with one arm and run back the way he came. She wraps her arms around his neck and looks back over his shoulder as he navigates through the cart maze.

He doesn't see any beasts ahead of him. But what he can see is the cart wall. The V is gone. It's been caved in by carts. He realizes that must have been the loud crash he heard before. The wall is coming up fast and he doesn't have time to squeeze through it this time.

"Not good" Rex mutters to himself as he reaches the base of the wall. He looks back to find the beast has just recovered. A thin trail of smoke comes off the burned eye.

The beast scans the road and spots him with its one good eye. A silent second goes by where Rex can practically see the rage boiling off the beast. It breaks into a charge without any warning. Tarring through carts and letting them fly as if they weighed nothing. Half blind with rage and, well, actually half blind. Rex has a good idea on how they got the carts stacked up now that he sees how easily the carts can fly.

Rex pries Wren off him and sets her down. It's like placing a statue on the ground. She's still frozen and that's still not good. Rex starts to feel the tension. He scans the wall and ends up looking at the top. Climbing this thing it the last thing he wants to do but it looks like their only option.

He kneels down to pick Wren up again but stops after spotting something. He sees a ray of light shining inside a hole in the wall. He didn't see it before because it's at Wren's level. It's completely invisible to him while standing up.

Rex turns Wren and guides her to the tunnel. He picks up a broken wood board along the way. The Captain ushers Wren into the tunnel. It's perfect for the girl's height, all she has to do is duck a little. But Rex has to enter the tunnel on his hands and knees.

He takes one last look at the raging beast then uses the board to plug up the entrance. The wall is only about two carts thick so the tunnel isn't that long. All it does is curve slightly to the left. Rex ushers Wren to keep going down the tunnel and towards the light. They take the bend and find where the light is coming from.

Rex's eyes widen. The light leaks in through three thick wooden planks. They're also baring them from the outside. Rex wasn't expecting that and has to bit his tong to stop himself from swearing in front of the kid.

Rex grabs a plank and tries forcing it to come away. It doesn't even wiggle. Locuna wood is stronger than it looks.

The Captain freezes when he hears the beast run up to the wall. He stops messing with the planks and goes quiet. Wren hears the beast and looks at him. Her eyes go wide and he swears he saw them glow red again.

Rex can hear patting noises as the beast paces up and down the length of the wall. It growls in confusion, probably wondering how the wall collapsed in on itself.

The Captain quietly reaches for the same plank and starts trying to shake it loose. He looks back the way they came. He can see the beast's shadow through the spaces in the wood as it walks by.

Rex shifts himself up to a kneeling position. Thinking he can try to kick the planks out. But he misjudges the tunnel's height and smacks his bucket hard off the sealing. It makes a loud thud sound that echoes through the tunnel. Rex finches at the sound, too loud for his comfort.

Its dead quiet outside, which probably means the beast has stopped moving. Rex doesn't move, he doesn't even breathe. All the Captain can hear is the fast beating of his own heart; he hopes he's the only one that can hear it. A few seconds go by and nothing happens. He has no idea where the beast is. Maybe it left.

Just when Rex thinks it's safe to move again the unexpected happens. The entrance he boarded up explodes inwards as the beast jams its giant head in through the hole. Splinters fly everywhere as the white beast wildly snaps its jaws at them and laughs. The beast thrashes its head and inches closer to them as it shakes the tunnel makes room for itself.

The whole wall shakes from its struggles. Rex knows that if the beast doesn't kill them, the cave in will. "Move in!" Rex yells as he pushes Wren closer to the bared exit and away from the giant death beast.

Rex forces his eyes off the beast and focuses on the planks. He draws a blaster and aims at the middle plank. He then rips his helmet off and throws it over Wren's head so she doesn't get hit with any fly backs. Rex squeezes the trigger and blasts the plank at point-blank range.

The charred wood shakes and sparks bounce off. His helmet protects Wren but he feels a burning sensation on his cheek. Rex wipes away the pain and uses his last two shots on the other two planks. This time he looks away to shield his face.

The Captain looks back when he's done. Each plank is charred black in the middle with a little hole that shows where the bolt hit. He shuffles up to the planks, feet first.

The beast is making room for itself, it rips chunks of wood off the sides so it can get closer to them and makes the tunnel threaten to collapse. A few more inches and they're done.

Rex sits next to Wren and kicks the bottom plank hard. It easily snaps in two and he moves to the second one, breaking that one in three and finally hoofing the top plank as hard as he can. It flies off with a highly satisfying snapping sound.

The carts shake even harder now that the planks are gone, they must have provided a support for the tunnel.

Rex practically picks Wren up and throws her out. He feels hot breath on the back of his neck and scrambles to escape himself. Diving out just as he hears a loud chomping sound right behind him.

The clone Captain goes through a spell of disorientation on the ground where it takes a moment to sink in that he's still got legs. He hears a frustrated growl that snaps him into reality.

Rex scrambles to his feet and glances back to find the beast's head jammed through the entrance and trying to get out. Luckily the hole is smaller on this side.

Rex can't help but smile down at the beast's struggling. Before, when he first saw the beast, it looked so majestic, beautiful in a wild and dangerous way. Now it's the opposite. Now the white beast has been consumed with rage. Its perfect white fur ruined by the blood from its eye and its face is in a permanent vicious snarl. All its dignity left the moment it tried to get through that small hole.

Rex lifts his helmet off of Wren's head and puts it on with a victorious smile he can't keep from showing.

But he swears the creature read his expression because it roars again and starts thrashing for freedom. Rex steps back in surprise as the beast starts to get free. It shakes the wall and starts creating a bigger hole to get through. The Captain mentally kicks himself for being cocky. It'll be free soon.

Rex turns to Wren and is about to pick her up to run when he spots something familiar. A small basket filled with red leaves sits on an untouched cart not fare away.

Rex sprints to the cart, grabs the basket and runs back. Wren watches him with absent eyes. The beast growls at him on his return. It has a leg out already.

He runs up and slams the basket over the beast's snout. Spice goes all over the beast's face. The beast yelps in pain and tries to shake the basket off. The empty basket flies away and the beast starts frantically backtracking into the hole to get away. The spice makes his nose sting even with the helmet on.

It doesn't take long for the beast to go back through the tunnel. It's almost out the other side. He can still see it now that the tunnel is bigger and the curve is gone. His eyes water just by seeing the beast's good eye swells up. He can tell the spice isn't helping the wound on its right eye ether.

The beast gives him one last glare before leaving the tunnel. He's never seen so much hate in an animal's eye then in that beast. It probably can't even see him but it still gives him the silent message that this is not over. It makes Rex's stomach turn to ice for a moment. This is not over.

The beast pulls itself out and tunnel collapses, sealing the hole between them and the danger.

Rex realizes he's holding his breath and breathes out for the first time in what seems like forever. He turns and looks back at Wren. She looks up at him, silently asking what just happened. He takes his helmet off and smiles down at her. After a long moment of blank staring, Wren falls on her butt and sits there.

Rex's smile drops, he walks over and kneels down next to her. Her whole body is shaking, her breaths are uneven and he can hear her heart racing. Her nerves have been shot, she's covered in blood stains and her face is in a permanent blank expression. Her arm is still bleeding, not by a lot but he doesn't like that she's paler them usual. And her once loosely braided hair is now a tangled mess.

Rex isn't sour which was worse. Wren last night or Wren right now. She needs medical help. He puts his helmet back on and carefully picks her up with both hands, supporting her this time so she's more comfortable before starting the walk back to the others.

Rex's path is completely clear of beasts, mist and cart walls. The three things he now hates. He walks past all the damage the beasts did with a hard face. The Captain sees the tank up ahead and looks around for the cart he stashed her animal skin bag on. He finds it right where he left it and picks it up as he walks by. Rex can see his men coming his way. They see him too and speed up.

Wren closes her eyes and rests her head on his shoulder. He looks down at her. He's worried that something's wrong and speeds up.

But most of his worry leaves when he notices that she's started humming again. He thinks it's some kind of nervous habit of she hers.

"It's okay." He mutters, more to himself then the shocked girl who he thinks is falling asleep.

The Captain meets with his men and lets Kix take Wren from him immediately. The medic places her on a hover stretcher and starts checking her status.

Fives, Echo, the General and almost all the clones stand around the stretcher in dead silence. It doesn't take Kix long.

"Wren's pretty shaken up. But she's okay." He says, unable to hide the surprise in his voice.

The all clones breathe out in relief and the General orders them to get back to work. Everyone leaves but Rex and Kix. The medic goes through his bag and pulls out a cloth, some water and a bacta patch. "She looks a lot worse than she actually is. Only one physical wound." Kix explains as he cleans the blood from the wound on her arm. She finches but doesn't fight. The blood comes away and Rex can make out three claw marks from where they tagged her. Kix sticks the patch over the marks and starts flashing a light over her eyes, which is difficult because she's falling asleep. He looks up at Rex. "But she's showing signs trauma. I can only imagine what you two saw in there, poor kid. I'll take Wren to the med station and keep an eye on her. Hopefully she can sleep the trauma off" The medic starts packing up.

Rex can understand why she's been traumatized. He's seen soldiers break down from less. At lease it wasn't shock like he thought, that would have been so much worse. Rex puts Wren's bag on the stretcher and nods to the medic as he takes her away to the makeshift camp.

The Captain turns to inspect the area around him. There's broken carts in the way of everything, wounded that still need help and dead bodies everywhere. The Locunians are arguing, most of the troopers don't have orders and don't know where they're needed. There's a strong sense of confusion in the air and the Jedi are too occupied with the tank and the leader to help. Rex takes a deep breath and starts shouting orders.

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**I've got 99 problems and this chapter ain't one (hehe). I owe this chapter to, three pots of coffee, an _enlightening _all higher, a bad headache I _will_ get tomorrow when I go through coffee withdrawal, and my readers. All of you are awesome.**

**If you like my fanfic then please tell your friends about it. Stick it on tumbler, tell your friends who like fanfics, pass out fliers, go on the radio, make a commercial. Okay you don't have to go that far.**

**And tell me if you think I should change the rating. Because, you know, clones getting ripped apart and stuff.**

**Okay, that's it, I'm going to run laps around my house until the caffeine wares off now.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Happy holidays everyone! Just imagine a giant bow on top of this and enjoy! (and if you'er reading this after Dec 25 2014 then consider it an early/late/freakishly right on time birthday present, because I make the rules!) :P**

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Rex hates blood, and he has every right to. There is a lot of blood in war. He hates shedding it, he hates when it's on his brothers, and he hates cleaning it off his armour.

The captain sits in the busy camp half set up just outside the range of destroyed carts. He scrubs at the red on his helmet with a wet cloth he keeps in his belt for these vary reasons. He tries to keep his armour clean when he can. It's important for a good captain image. It also sets an example for his men to follow. A lot of troopers discard cleanliness when it's not convenient. He even knows some who only take baths when they're on lease. He hopes his men never get that habit.

Skywalker took over for him on the clean up after he and Dex finished fixing the tank. Rex is only sitting there cleaning because Skywalker ordered him to take a break. There isn't much left to do anyways, other than to help the Locunians get organized and wait for the medics finish patching people up. They would already be on the road if the Locunians weren't there to slow them down.

The captain has already had the men push broken carts to the side of the road and help all the injured to the med station. The hard part was tearing down the cart wall. It took Ahsoka's abilities and three minutes of most of his men pushing to knock it over. And Rex was happy to see it go. He also had all the Locunian dead moved to one spot just outside the camp. Most of the Locunians are there now, doing some kind of funeral. He also let his men move dead brothers into a line outside the camp as well. Where troopers that knew them can take a minuet and pay their respects. Rex stopped and saluted to the brave clone on his way back to the camp. Apparently his name was Riker.

It's mostly the clone's splattered blood on his helm, but there's also a small red handprint from where Wren touched the side and some beast blood droplets at the front. Probably from when the beast was stuck in the tunnel and thrashing to get out.

Rex tries not to scratch the jaig eyes above his visor but the beast blood is making that difficult. He's never seen blood like this before. It's oily and it refuses to come off without a fight. So naturally he ends up scratching up the paint no matter what he does. Rex gives a sigh and makes a mental note to get his hands on some blue paint next time he's on Coruscant. He gets the last bit of red off his bucket and moves his body armour. He quickly wipes off Wren's smeared blood and the dirt from crawling through the tunnel. He doesn't care about scratching the paint as much so he rushes through it in two minutes. It's not a perfect cleaning job but it will do for now. He'll probably go back to it if he gets the chance.

The captain stands up and heads towards the med station. It's the busiest place right now so he figures he can get an update there. And check on Wren, if he's being truthful about it. The captain sees a lot of progress on his way to the station. The Locunians have just finished with their funeral and are now moving the bodies into the forest to rest, and make room for the coming cart traffic. Troopers are doing the same thing with dead brothers. It's one of the better clone resting places he's seen in this war.

Most of the carts and wagons are too damaged to work so the people are starting to pick out what to leave behind and what to bring. Clones find unclaimed but still usable carts for people to take if they want them. Some of his men are even taking carts that still have live animals pulling them so they don't need to carry their packs by hand. Rex doesn't have a problem with it.

Even with the giant claw marks going down the sides, the walker still works. Dex is bringing up the road right now.

Rex also spots the leader arguing with a fairly large group of low class Locunians. His guards keep them away. The nearby troopers don't appear to be noticing the argument. They'll probably do something if a real fight breaks out but he smiles at how proud he is of them. He doesn't feel like getting involved ether and walks on.

They set up the med station in a small stretch of field beside the road. It shrinks by the minuet as medics work double time to get the injured stable and ready to travel again. They patch patients up with bacta string and pain killer then send them on their way when the wounds have healed enough. They've also gathered some unclaimed carts and are loading them up with the more critically injured. The clone that helped the last group of survivors to the line is getting helped onto a wagon right now.

Hotshot is there. He talks to the clone medics as they load people on. He's been going around tallying up the death count. He spots the captain approaching and stands straighter the way shinies do when he comes around.

"Sir" he salutes. Rex stops in front of him.

"What's the toll?" he asks. Hotshot shakes his head.

"I'm still counting, sir. But I'm up to forty now, and that's not counting the missing." Rex nods, thinking back to the bodies he saw getting dragged away by the beasts.

"Alright, come find me when you're done counting. I want the dead, missing, and injured count."

"Yes sir." Hotshot gets back to work as Rex walks past him and enters the med station.

It doesn't take long to find Wren in the crowd because he can hear Kix yelling at her to stay put from the other side of the station. He follows the voices towards the heart of the station and finds Kix in the middle of a glaring contest with Wren, who is currently standing up on the stretcher with a stubborn set in her jaw and a determined glint in her eye. Both things she may or may not have gotten from him.

Wren looks a lot better than when he last saw her an hour ago. All the blood is gone with only a new bacta patch to show that she's been clawed at all. Her hair is still a mess with the braids gone, but she's managed to get the dirt out. Some color has returned to her face and she's changed into a new set of clothes.

Wren says something fast in Locua. Kix shakes his head and points to the stretcher.

"Whatever you want to do can wait. Now, sit, down." Wren stands on her tippy toes to get closer to his level and narrows her red eyes at him. She's trying to look intimidating and failing miserably. Rex has to keep himself from laughing. Kix doesn't break and gives her his intimidation face, which is much better than hers. Wren breaks. He wordlessly taps the stretcher. She lets out a huff and falls back onto her butt, folding her arms and refusing to make eye contact with the medic. He sighs and moves on to checking her bandage.

Rex comes closer and Wren spots him. Her eyes light up and she smiles at him. Kix follows her gaze to find the captain approaching.

"Sir" the he says as he turns back around and starts checking Wren's arm for nerve damage. Rex stops in front of them and watches him work. He notices that Wren is having a hard time staying still. Kix lets her go and turns to the captain. She stands right up again and watches them. He can see the physical toll it takes Kix to pretend that she didn't just stand up again.

"How are the patients?" the captain asks to keep from smiling. Kix looks around at the surrounding wounded and starts mentally tallying up a progress report. Rex uses the short pause to give Wren a small smile. Finally, he looks back at the captain.

"We're going through the last of the wounded and starting to pack it in. Most of them can walk and we have wagons for the ones that can't yet. I'd say another, twenty minutes and we'll be ready to move." Rex nods at how good that sounds.

"And what about the little imp," the captain asks, referring to Wren. Kix looks back at her.

"The nap helped shake off some nerves but I don't think she'll forget about this any time soon. The bacta patch is working fine. And I figured out why she was so energetic this morning." Rex gives the medic a curious look. "It turns out she has an overactive system towards bacta." He doesn't know what that means and Kix can read it from his face. "Whenever she has bacta in her system her energy will drop. She'll probably fall asleep and her wounds will start healing. That's normal in a lot of kids. But her energy, plus the energy the bacta makes but doesn't use will all come flooding back at once. And she will get vary, vary hyper."

Rex looks at her again. The last time he saw her she was falling asleep in his arms. Now she's standing on the stretcher, ready to jump off. He thinks of when she took his bucket. That was because of the bacta. "I didn't notice it last night because I gave her a sedative, and it delayed the energy burst till the morning. It's a pretty rare reaction to bacta and it isn't dangerous. But she's probably going to crash pretty hard tonight. Oh." Kix pauses as he remembers something.

"And an anonymous Locunian dropped off a bag clothes for her to have." He points to a small bag hanging off the stretcher along with her animal skin bag. Her old shirt and shorts are tied to the strap.

That explains the new clothes. He looks back to Wren. She's switched out her old blue dress and black shorts for a light drown dress with blue, orange and white zigzag patterns going all the way around her middle and sleeves that reach her elbows. Just like her blue dress, this one looks like it's supposed to be a grownup's shirt too. She's also wearing a pair of black pants that goes just past her knees and seems to actually fit. The girl is still barefoot; he doesn't think she'll change that anytime soon.

Rex looks at the Locunians around them. So someone out there doesn't have a grudge towards her, that's a start.

Kix leaves to help other patients. Wren looks up at him and sits down. He can tell just by looking that the girl is packing more energy them she knows what to do with. Her eyes vibrate and she's given up of staying still. Her eyes move all over as something else catches her attention then gets replaced by another thing.

Rex is vaguely reminded about that time a shinie medic accidently gave a little injured boy adrenalin shot thinking it was something to help him sleep. They had to chase the kid around for twenty minutes.

He comes closer and kneels down to her level. He gives her a serious face.

"Are you okay?" He asks. Sometimes the captain swears she can understand him because when he asks her smile slowly starts to drop. She looks at him with sad, distant eyes. It will take a long time for her to get over what happened today. Kids should never have to see that.

Rex shakes off the dread and smiles at the little girl. He pulls a ration bar out of his utility belt and shows it to her. Wren gets shocked out of her sadness and gives a toothy smile at the sight of food. Rex hands her the bar. She tears through the packaging and her worries milt away as she eats.

Something behind Rex catches her attention and Rex turns around to see what it is. Fives is making his way towards them with a young Locunian woman following close behind. They stop in front of Rex and Wren.

"Sir, I think you should hear this." He turns to the woman and beckons her to come forward. She looks from Rex to Fives with shy eyes. "Just tell the captain what you told us." He encourages. The woman looks back to the captain.

"The monsters we saw today go by the name of orza, which in basic, means wolf of shadow" she speaks pretty well basic, but her ascent is one of the thickest he's heard so far.

Troopers start forming around them to hear what the woman has to say. Wren absently nibbles the bar and watches the woman with curious eyes. "They are ferocious beasts that are not easy to kill. Their pelts are widely sought out for their strength. And their teeth carry many healing properties." A Locunian man starts translating everything said into Locua so all the gathering Locunians can hear the discussion.

"How is the mist connected to the, orza?" a clone asks, as if he could read Rex's mind. The woman looks lost at that question. She doesn't know the answer. Rex is about to lose all hope of ever knowing when Wren pipes up and starts speaking in Locua out of nowhere. The man translates it into basic after a moment of hesitation.

"The legend says all the orza in this forest are part of one big pack. A great pack, with only one great leader." Wren looks around at everyone watching her and her cheeks instantly go red. Rex wonders if she has some kind of stage fright. She keeps going. "But the pack leader is no ordinary orza. Its strength has no limits so it can bring down a voola in seconds. They say you can hear its roar from all around as it dances with the wind and its laughter as if it stood feet away from you in the dead of night."

Wren sounds like she's reciting an old story from memory now. "The weather is rumored to have fallen in love with the pack leader. And the weather will do anything to make it happy. Cloaking the grounds in white wherever it roams" She looks around at everyone hanging off her words. "My people say its red eyes are the portals to the netherworld, and that its very glare can spirit away your soul. We have a name for this beast, orza-digno. This means, wolf of _white_ shadow, in basic." The translator adds on in the end.

Wren doesn't say anything else so Rex speaks up. "Will it come back?" the translator repeats the question for him in Locua. She looks at him with the first completely serious face he's seen on her before speaking gain.

"My people have only seen orza-digno three times in the last fifty rotations. There have probably been more sightings. But they never found the bodies. We made it mad. It's coming back with numbers, a taste for blood, and memories." Wren goes back to eating her bar as if she didn't say anything. The people dissipate after realizing that Wren has finished talking.

Rex turns to Fives. "Relay this to the general. I'm going to find out how long we have until we can leave." Fives blinks out of the shock, still processing the information, he is to.

"Right" he mumbles before jogging off and disappearing in the crowed.

Rex turns back and points at Wren as she finishes her bar.

"You," he starts in a stern voice. She looks up at him. He points to the stretcher. "Stay, here." The girl gives him an innocent look that he finds extremely suspicious. But she doesn't move so he figures she gets it.

The captain starts backing away from her. "Okay then, stay, right, there." Rex turns around and instantly hears scuttling behind him. He whips back around to find Wren with one leg off the stretcher. The captain loudly clears his throat. She freezes and looks back at him. He wordlessly folds his arms.

Wren narrows her eyes at him and climbs back onto the stretcher. She sits down like it's her vary own time out spot.

"Stay" he says again. She rolls her eyes and folds her arms. Rex ignores that and turns around when he's shore she won't follow. He doesn't hear her move this time and smiles to himself and walks away.

* * *

Wren waits till Rex is out of ear shot and looks around to make sure the needle man isn't watching her. He's busy talking to a patient. She slips off the stretcher when the coast is clear and starts stuffing her new and old clothes into her bag.

She throws the strap over her head when she's all packed and does another sneaky look around for the needle man. He's coming back but he hasn't seen her yet. Wren crouches under the unused stretchers and sneaks by him. She hears him yell when he realizes she's gone and smiles. It's too late, she's out of the station and free.

Wren spots Rex talking to a group of men that share his face. She still doesn't understand how they can all look the same. Her theory is magic. They break apart and Rex starts walking towards the giant metal spider. She smiles to herself and starts following him.

* * *

Rex was trained to be aware of his surroundings at all times. It's one of the first things they teach you as a cadet. Wren isn't fooling him. He thinks of turning around and yelling at her but figures that wouldn't do anything. So he lets it go. It's not like she's critically injured or anything. And she needs to burn off all that energy somehow.

Wren quickly realizes that Rex has caught on and starts walking next to him, well, more like near him as she climbs over the discarded carts, jumping from cart to cart as if the ground was lava. She works hard to keep up with his quick pace. All Rex can think is, where was that climbing skill when they were at the wall?

Rex stops at the tank and Dex comes up to him.

"Sir" he starts to salute but quickly gets distracted when he sees Wren climbing up the side of the tank. Rex just acts like it's not happening.

"What's the news regarding the tank?" he asks. Dex looks back the others working on the tank and then slightly up as Wren reaches the top and looks down at them.

"Um, the general helped us get the engines back into working order, but we're having some trouble getting the main canon and turrets back online. It can be fixed on the road but it might take a day or so." He explains. Wren examines the claw marks with hesitant curiosity.

"Did the supplies take any hits?" Rex holds his breath. This was the part he was afraid of. Dex shakes his head.

"No. but the back was left open and we had to chase off some of those little animals when we first got back to it." He points up to the trees. Rex follows his finger and looks up. The playing animals have returned to the trees. But a large group of them aren't playing. They remain stationary in the branches directly over the tank and look down at them with hungry interest. "And now the little guys know we have food in the walker." Rex frowns. That's not good.

Wren follows their gaze and sees the animals in the trees.

"And on top of that, we've learned that they can wiggle in through the claw marks so closing the doors off won't help keep them out."

"Can't we just scare them off" Rex asks, hoping for an easy fix. Dex shakes his head.

"We already tried that." Rex sighs touches the back of his head.

"That's great" he mumbles.

Wren watches the animals as they start descending from the trees and towards the tank. Some clones wave their arms in the air to try and make them leave. The animals ignore them and get closer.

Wren lifts a hand and places her I index finger and thumb into her mouth. As if she was going to whistle. She blows as hard as she can and her cheeks puff out. Rex braces for a loud whistle but no sound comes out. The captain realizes that even though he can't hear anything, it seems the animals can. Birds fly away, lizards scurry deeper into the trees, and all the livestock on the road go out of control. Leaving their owners to try and keep them calm.

The little white animals go crazy. They flinch away from Wren and start darting back up the trees at lightning fast speeds, putting as much distance from her as they can and forgetting about the food.

Wren stops and drops her hand when the little creatures are far enough away. All the animals' instantly go back to normal. She smiles at her work as the troopers look up at her in shock.

"Well," Rex starts as he comes out of his own shock, Dex isn't quite there yet. "That fixes that."

The animals learned there lessen and don't come back. They go back to their playing as if nothing happened.

"What, was, that?" Dex asks slowly. Wren goes back to examining the claw marks. Rex smiles at the tank driver.

"I think she just fixed your pest problem. Get the tank into position and start working on the canon. It's almost time to leave and we need every advantage we can…" Rex is cut off when he spots Wren getting too close to one of the claw rips on the tank and puts her hand inside it. Giant sparks explode out from where she touched. Wren lets out a startled scream and jumps away from the gash. She lands on all fours like a startled cat.

"Wren!" Rex breaks off his conversation with Dex and stomps up to the tank. He looks up at her. "Quit messing with the walker and get down before you kill yourself!"

Wren peers down and sticks her tongue out at him. The captain has been sworn at, shown rude gestures and even flashed more times than he would have wished. But no one _ever_ stuck their tong out at the captain before. But of course, Wren doesn't care.

Rex shakes his head. "No, we're not doing this again." He points a stern finger to the ground. "Down, now." Wren sighs and climbs down with no difficulty at all. She jumps down the rest of the way and lands on a cart, where she goes back to her lava game for entertainment.

Rex lets out a heavy sigh and turns back to Dex.

"Just fix the canon" he says, suddenly exhausted. Dex and the men all try to hide their smiles but Rex isn't fooled.

"We'll get right on that sir."

Rex marches away. Wren realizes he's leaving and starts following him on the carts. The people are almost ready to go. Clones are helping the last of the Locunians load their belongings onto carts and the med station is nearly gone.

Rex is looking for Skywalker but he stops whenever he's needed. It mostly includes helping his men load heavy items and solving disputes between arguing Locunians. He even has to break up some fights along the way. Every time Wren sits on a nearby cart and cheers Rex on. The captain swops information with most of the troopers he talks to. Rex tells them what's happening and they tell him how long they need. He really doesn't like how much time they've wasted in this place. They need to move. Hotshot finds him and gives him the death, the missing, and the critically injured counts. He thanks the shinie and moves on.

Rex finds the general and his padawan at the edge of the cart camp, ready to lead the people on. It looks like Skywalker is just finishing up a report to Obi-Wan Kenobi. He shuts the hologram off and turns to Rex.

"Sir, we're almost set to move." The captain tells the general. He looks happy at the news.

"Good, we've spent too much time here as it is."

The Jedi spots Wren behind Rex. She's found entertainment in playing with a little electric blue lizard that's crawled onto a cart. She lightly hums as she feeds the lizard leafs from a twig.

"Fives just told me about what she said" he says, referring to what Wren told them about the white wolf. Rex nods. "And I don't think it's just a legend ether. It sounds to me like this beast has a force ability."

Rex whips his head to the side and looks at the general. He didn't know animals could be force-sensitive. Ahsoka reads his expression and explains.

"It's rare in animals but not unheard of. And it's usually only limited to a couple tricks."

"Like controlling the climate" the general adds on and folds his arms. Rex thinks of how much sense that makes.

"When I blasted the pack leader's eye, it roared and the mist started swirling around us like the eye of a storm. It _reacted_ to the orza-digno's pain." The general looks like his suspicions have just been confirmed.

"And I thought _droids_ were going to be the problem," Ahsoka mumbles as she sits on a cart.

Rex moves on and tells them the death and missing counts. There's sixty three dead, twenty two missing, and eighty five gone from the original count. Way too high for Rex's comfort. Especially with how small the numbers actually were that attached them. And Wren says there will only be more. The general shrugs off the loss with news of his own.

"Obi-Wan needs us to pick up the pace. The Locunian council is calling for a meeting to discuss their next move. They can't do it without Gefar there and they can't spare a gunship to pick him up."

"Why don't he just do it with holograms?" Ahsoka rolls her eyes at the question. It seems like she already asked.

"_Apparently_, it's considered _deceitful_ and _untrusting_ to use holograms in the great Locunian council" she says dramatically in her best Gefar voice. Wren detects Ahsoka's Gafar impersonation and laughs.

"He's refusing to." The general tells him. The more Rex learns about Gefar the more he hates the Locunian leader. Everything he does slows down the process of helping his people and he only looks out for himself.

Two troopers run up to them and salute.

"Sirs," one says, "we're all set." The general looks back to find every Locunian ready to move and every trooper waiting to go. He nods to the troopers.

"Rex, if you would." They make eye contact before the captain slips his helmet on and looks back at the people. He waves an arm into the air for everyone to see.

"Let's go!" he yells.

* * *

They start up at a slow pace with everyone getting used to their new carts and the injured wagons legging behind. There's also a layer of fear hanging over the people and some of his men. People are jumping at their own shadows.

The only sounds come from the tank's mettle legs, Wren's own humming, and a lone musician, trying to restore the people's happy mood with his music. Rex didn't think it would work. But after couple hours, they manage to break the fear with music as other musicians join in. It's not long until the Locunians get back to their happy gossiping selves. Rex remembers the same thing happening when their city fell. He's amazed at how well these people can bounce back from bad times.

And with the restored happy mood comes better time as the Locunians start keeping up with their quick pace a lot better.

Wren bounces along with him and the Jedi at the head of the party. But Rex has noticed that she's keeping her distance from the general and eyeing him suspiciously every now and then. Rex doesn't think he's noticed, yet.

To his surprise, Wren manages to warn up to Ahsoka pretty fast. She even burns off some energy by playing tag with the young Jedi, who is the only one there that manages to present a challenge for the little girl. And Wren doesn't have to steal anything to get her to play, luckily. He can't imagine anything good happening if the hyperactive Wren gets her hands on a lightsaber. But it's not long until Ahsoka gets tired and has to stop playing.

Wren goes back finding her own fun by humming tunes and exploring the forest along the road. She jumps on rocks and swings off branches, lost in her own world. Rex keeps an eye on her as she plays around the trees. In case the orza come back.

Locuna's star starts to go down after a long time of walking and Rex can feel the temperature drop fast. It will get dark soon. The general wants to get as far as they can before stopping, he agrees. The people don't argue about it ether. The star sets and they march on.

Some Locunians pull out lanterns. They light them and hang them off their carts to keep the dark at bay. It starts a trend. More and more Locunians light their own lanterns and hang them up. It's not long until there are hundreds of lanterns all throughout the crowds.

People wrap blankets around themselves and their children to keep warm and troopers go around handing out tonight's ration cans to eat on the road.

Wren comes back onto the road when the sky gets completely dark. Rex tracks his pack down to one of the clone-jacked carts. He pulls out the blanket. He gives it to Wren and she wraps it around herself. He also takes the opportunity to reload his blaster pistols and grab some spare ammo.

Wren pulls a little lantern out of her own bag. She gets Rex to light it for her and starts walking in front of them, swinging it around and lighting the way for them.

It's not long until the people start getting tired. The children (minus Wren) are the first to show it. They (minus Wren) start yawning and stop their playing. Most of them quickly fall asleep in carts or in their parent's arms. But the adults don't get to sleep. They rub their eyes and keep the pace. Musicians play their music loud to keep the people awake but it's not a perfect fix.

The only Locunian not affected is Wren and she quickly becomes the most awake person on the road. She walks in front of him, happily holding the lantern in one hand and twirling a sizable stick she found in the other. It kind of reminds Rex of how a Jedi wields a lightsaber. She seems to be having fun with it.

It's a couple hours past midnight. Wren's energy spike is still going strong and she's still twirling the stick. Her eyes are wide open as she babbles on to Rex and the men at one thousand Locua words per minute. As if they can understand her. Everyone's too tired to get annoyed. Rex doesn't know how long it will last but it seems like she will never slow down.

Rex is about to go find Kix when he catches Wren yawn for the first time all night. He watches as the girl starts to slow down. She stops completely when she lets out another yaw and rubs the corners of her eyes. Wren sways and Rex starts speed walking forward. Wren leans on the stick to stand and yawns again. She blinks multiple times and each time it's harder for her to open them again. Her legs finally give. Rex speeds up and manages to scoop her up before she fits the ground. One look tells him Wren is already fast asleep, and she'll probably be like that for a long time.

He's not really sour on what to do now. It's not like the last two times when he had to run her to the medics. This time she's just sleeping.

The captain shuffles Wren onto one arm and picks up her fallen lantern. He blows it out, and slips it back into her bag. He leaves the stick where Wren dropped it and carries her over to the same cart he found his pack in.

"Hold on trooper" he says. The clone guiding the cart animal pulls it to a stop and waits

Rex takes Wren's bag off and drops it in the cart. He then clears a spot and lowers the girl in as gently as he can without waking her, but he figures she can sleep through anything right now. Rex lets her go and tries to pull away only to learn that she's grappled onto his forearm. Wren holds him there like a giant Rex-shaped stuffed animal and doesn't let go. Rex is absently glad he cleaned his armour earlier because if he hadn't, then she would be covered in dried blood right now. The captain slips out of her iron grip and takes his arm away before she can make a grab for it. She grunts in her sleep and rolls over, bunching up the blanket in her arms to create another stuffed animal replacement for her to cuddle and use as a pillow. Rex stops holding his breath when she settles down and awkwardly pulls the blanket down to cover her bare feet.

The captain stands up strait and turns around to find a group of his men watching him. That's something they probably never imagined their captain doing. He feels the mild corrosion on the sides of his image just by standing there.

Rex clears his throat.

"Keep moving lads, _we_ don't get to sleep yet" he says in his captain voice. They hesitantly walk on. Rex thanks the trooper as he gets the animal to start walking again. He leaves Wren in the cart and makes his way back to the front.

They march for another hour until the general says they can stop for the night, he's good at sensing when the people are at their limit. The Locunians don't even take their carts off the road. They crawl onto their carts and fall asleep instantly.

Most of the clones fall asleep as well, with the exception of a small few who managed to rest in the tank and volunteer to take night watch. The general says he'll sense it if the orza try to attack so he isn't worried about an ambush, tonight at least.

The people blow out their lanterns but some stay lit and to leave just enough light for Rex to navigate the road. He finds the cart he put Wren in to learn that it's the cart most of his men chose to sleep around. It looks like they set up a defending line around her.

Rex joins his brothers and sits down with his back leaning against the cart. It feels good to sit. He falls asleep in minuets and with his helmet still on. Rex's last thought was of how sore he knows he'll be in the morning.

* * *

**I've finally found my creative writing switch! It's warm, comes in a mug, starts with the letter c, and keeps me awake at night until I complete a chapter or the pot goes empty.**

** :P**

**Anyways I hope you like my Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/any other holiday/just days you got off work or school because of all the other holidays present! I finished on the night before Christmas Eve so I decided to just wait till Christmas and call it the biggest gift I've ever given to the world. Not bad eh?**

**I'm basing Wren's new outfit off a picture I found on Pinterest. You can find it (and her lantern) on my "Wren" board if you want to see it. I think you've seen the link once or twice :P**

**feel free to carol in the reviews! its my favorit part of writing, besides the actual writing part**


	9. Chapter 9

The Captain starts to slowly wake up after feeling something move on his leg. At first he thinks its Wren trying to get him up again. But even Wren isn't that small. And on top of that, he starts to hear soft crunching sounds (Wren doesn't make crunching sounds). Even with the moving and the crunching, it still takes the still half sleeping Captain a few more seconds to crack an eye open and check out the mysterious disturbance.

One of the little white creatures sits on his knee-plate, happily nibbling on some kind of nut and looking up at him with big, entirely blue eyes. Its giant bushy tail (almost two times the size of the actual creature) twitching back and forth behind it, as if it has a mind of its own.

The Captain's eyes fling open as surprise wakes him up like a bucket of ice water and he shoots upright, scaring the animal. It drops its nut and scampers back to the safety of the forest at lightning speed.

Rex watches it disappear with hazy eyes. He removes his helmet to get some fresh air and look around, might as well now that he's up. The pink sky and cold damp air tells him Locuna's star just came up. Probably only been out for ten minutes.

Rex slumps to his feet and stretches. His back cracks as he does it, relieving some stiffness from sleeping up against the cart.

Fives, Hotshot, and most of the other troopers are still propped up around the cart sleeping. Although a small amount of clones and even Locunians are already up and eating cold rations.

The Captain was going to get the rest of his troopers up, but quickly decides to let the ladies be. They need the sleep, even if it'll probably only be a few more minutes before he gets the call from Skywalker to start ending happy dreams.

He looks back into the wagon and finds Wren right where he left her for a change. She's burrowed under the blanket with only a tuff of white sticking out the top and a toe pocking out the bottom to show that she's still in there somewhere.

Rex frowns. Poor kid, in less than two days she's been bombed on, beaten and almost swallowed whole by orza. That's almost up to clone standards.

The Captain is about to go find a ration can when his comlink beeps to life. It's Commander Tano. He puts her through and she tells him they're leaving soon, and to get the men up, confirming his prediction.

"Right" he says at the end, trying to hide his sleepiness. He shuts the link off and looks back at his men, an evil smile growing onto his face. They look so cute when they're sleeping. And he notes that they're also all still wearing their buckets.

Rex slides his helmet back on and activates its secondary system (the comlink and screen system). Screen overlays instantly pop up on his visor, showing him a world where data and reality are one. It's not as comforting to him as it is to others. He finds the overlays annoying most of the time and even distracting when unnecessary things pop up without warning. Some things are useful though, like night vision functions and incoming signals if an enemy throws a thermal detonator his way. But outside of combat its best to just keep the overlays off.

Rex takes a second to mess with the overlays until it only shows him the basics, standard time, temp, compass, and comlink channel list, which isn't too big since they're in the middle of nowhere right now. He uses the controls at the side of the bucket to click through the frequencies until he finds the one all short ranged buckets are automatically wired to. He uses said channel to remote activate all the helm comlinks. This is something only he, as a Captain, is able to do. Can't have anyone abusing that power, oh no, that would be just horrible, Rex thinks as he cranks his mike to full volume. He takes a breath and whistles as loud as he can into it.

The whistle travels through to all the sleeping clones and he happily watches as they jolt awake, flopping like fish out of water. Every man instantly switching to fight mode and scrambling to their feet. Unsure on what's happening as they look around. It vaguely reminds the Captain of Wren's silent whistle she did the other day that only worked on animals, but his only works on clones. He's got his own clone whistle.

Rex chuckles at the thought and turns his mike back to normal volumes. The men realize his trick and start awkwardly leaving fight mode, but it's too late, they're all wide awake now.

"Morning lads. I hope you all had a fantastic sleep" he says through the bucket links now that he has their undivided attention. Most of them just look at him, probably glaring under the visors.

"The wake up could have been smoother, sir." Fives comments without a second thought and stretches his arm out. Rex ignores that and gets back to busyness now that his fun is over.

"Nothing beats a little adrenaline rush in the morning to wake you right up, don't deny it you know it's true. Alright men, get the people up and get ready, we move in six."

They manage to get back on the road with little complaint. The only one who really tries to fight them is Gefar. Rex snorted when he tried. It must be easy to sleep soundly and without fear while protected by eleven armoured guards. But the Captain puts a quick end to that little mutiny. They still have a schedule to keep after all. Everyone else is more than happy to get going, even though they keep yawning.

Rex marches ahead of the walker with a small group of troopers. They may seem relaxed, but every last one of them are on alert for the orza.

They're taking every measure today. He had his men equally positioned at the front, where Skywalker leads the parade. In the middle, where he keeps an eye on things. And at the back, where the Commander watches their rear and keeps an eye on the Leader (that part of her job was implied).

His hope is that everyone will be equally protected. It's the best they can do, considering what they have to work with. Rex just hopes they don't run into any sepies, the formation won't be too effective against clankers.

Behind him, a few clones have climbed onto the tank to work on getting the main cannon back online. Whenever the Captain looks back they're ether welding, connecting wires, or arguing about the proper placement of a different part he can't pronounce. When Rex asks Dex for a progress report over the coms he can tell right away that tensions are high. The driver mumbles something about making progress and cuts out. Rex decides to just leave them to their work and stay out of it.

They've only been walking an hour when the silence is broken by Hardcase, no surprise there.

"So," he starts, already getting looks from his brothers. "The Locunian said orza teeth can be used as medicine, right?" More clones look over at him.

"Yea?" Fives says hesitantly.

"Okay, but, how did they figure that out, exactly?" Echo looks back at him as well.

"Really? That's your question?" he asks. Rex chuckles under his breath.

"Well, yes. I mean, who figured that out? What person in their right mind would see an orza coming out of the forest, turn to his buddy, and go 'hmm, see that blasting bloodthirsty monster over there? I bet, its teeth would clear the rash on my bum right up.'" The men laugh and Rex can't help but smile. The trooper keeps going now that he has their attention. "Then the second suicidal Locunian turns to the first suicidal Locunian and says, 'you know what? That is a great idea. Wait here and I'll go get the pliers.'" All the troopers burst out laughing at that last part, including the Captain, for a second or two.

The men then start talking about various theories on how the Locunians made the discovery. Rex's favorite is Fives' theory of a man whose headache clears up after getting his head chewed on by a pup.

The men seem better now that they're talking. Leave it to Hardcase to improve a mood. Add that to the last patient (a trooper with a mulled leg) finally being cleared to leave the last injured wagon and it could be considered a good morning, at lease for clone standards.

Three standard hours pass and nothing really happens, which is good. Nearly all the Locunians are up now. Last night the kids were the first to fall asleep, and now they're the last to wake up. The Captain doesn't know when it happened, one moment, everything is peaceful. And the next, kids are running around the road like little crazies.

Wren is the last to wake up by an hour, not surprising. And it's far from pretty. The girl comes out of the wagon like the dead rising. She trudges around with the blanket tightly wrapped around her with no plans of parting with it as she rubs her eyes with a tinny fist and yawns like it's going out of fashion. For a while she's sleepy, quiet, and a little cranky. It's almost like she has a little hangover. Rex finds it kind of funny, she doesn't. But the kid starts feeling better once he gets her a ration can. And it's not long until she revolves back to happy Wren.

The day goes on and still, somehow, nothing big happens. And "nothing big" means Rex doesn't use his blasters, the medics don't need to see Wren, no one dies, and no orza are spotted. It also means the clones get some time off. But they still stay alert, it doesn't matter how long the orza wait, his men won't be caught off guard again.

Unfortunately for the Captain, most of his free time is spent, voluntarily, and involuntarily, playing with Wren. Involuntarily is whenever she manages to steal his bucket and run for the hills. This "game" happens four separate times, two with the assist of clone trooper Fives himself. Each time Rex has to hunt the kid down to get it back.

Because of that it quickly becomes her favorite game to pass the time, and the men's favorite source of entertainment. They even start calling it "Rexing," or "Fivesing," after the Captain convinced her to steal Fives' bucket for a refreshing change of events. They also nicknamed Wren "little Rex," because she's taken to wearing the helmet and yelling "im-Captain-Rex!" in her best Rex impersonation before running off to hide. The Captain swears she knows what that means. But he can't prove it.

Rex wouldn't mind "Rexing" so much if they didn't have a little bit of an orza problem at the moment, or if it didn't eat up his Captain's image faster than a hungry Jabba the hut at an all-you-can-eat buffet. It'll be a miracle if he still has a shred of dignity to claw onto after all this. It seems to help get her mind off the events of yesterday when she plays though, but the Captain still needs his bucket for captain things.

Rex finally manages to get little Rex to stop Rexing by telling her the names of his men when she points to them. For some reason she finds it interesting that men with the same faces all have different names. He doesn't mind doing it, as long as it stops her from Rexing.

"Hotshot." "Hardcase." "Dex." "Kix." "Echo." "Mr. Sparkles the Hutt." Fives doesn't find that as funny as the rest of them. Especially when Wren realizes it bothers him and starts running around screaming "Mr. Sparkles the Hutt!" at the top of her little lungs with him running behind her yelling "Its fives!" Rex regrets nothing, he considers it payback for the im-Captain-Rex comments.

The Captain also starts teaching her some basic. Not much, but if she points at something he tells her its name just like he does for the troopers. "Tree." "Wagon." "blaster." "helmet." "Jaig eyes."

Around half way through the day they stop and take a short break in a large field to the side of the road. And now that the Captain is on a little bit of a role in the teaching busyness, he uses the break to sit down with Wren and teach her some sentences. He's not exactly sure how much she's picking up. But the kid seems like a fast enough learner.

Echo and sparkles walk over to them with water canteens and sit down. Wren takes the chance to show off her new vocabulary to an audience. They're impressed. Rex is proud of his teaching skills.

When she's done Fives takes the chance to move up and sit in front of her.

"Okay, here's the important words." Alarms go off in the Captain's head, thinking the trooper is about to teach her the bad words. Fives clears his throat. "Clone trooper Fives is and will forever be the bravest soldier in the galaxy." He waits for her to repeat it. Wren gives him a suspiciously sweet smile.

"Clone Captain Rex is and will forever be the bravest soldier in the galaxy." She says, her soft Locunian ascent giving her words an elegant finish. Fives frowns and Rex smirks as he picks up a canteen.

"Already taught her that one, trooper," he says before sitting back and taking a long sip to hide his smirk. He takes a couple gulps before breaking off. "But nice try."

Echo bursts out laughing and Wren pats a failed Fives on the back to cheer him up. Or so he thinks. But Rex knows a diversion when he sees it and predicts what the kid's about to do a second before she does it.

The girl snatches the poor trooper's bucket and goes Fivesing, giggling like only a little girl can as she races off. That little imp. Fives quickly takes the bait and runs after her.

But this time she doesn't get far because once again, the helmet slides down and blocks her vision. Fives sees what's about to happen and stops running to yell at her. But she doesn't hear him.

Before the girl can move the helm back up to dodge the next obstacle she runs right into an unsuspecting Locunian boy who (in her defence) comes out of nowhere and runs into her too. The boy gets no time to brake and they crash right into each other, making Rex and Echo both flinch from the sound of the impact. The two kids fall flat on the ground in opposite directions and lay there for a moment to let the world stop spinning.

The boy moves first, he rubs the side of his cheek (where the top of the helm hit him) and sits up to see what happened. He does a double take on Wren (who is now starting to sit up herself) and scrambles to his feet.

"At least she wore a helmet," Echo jokes. But the Captain isn't listening. His attention is on Wren and the boy about her age, maybe a little older. He also spots a small army of children watching Wren and the boy not too far off behind some wagons. He guesses they're the boy's friends.

Rex is curious to see what will happen because he's never seen Wren interact with any of the other kids throughout the journey so far, not until now. He wonders if the kids understand their people's hatred towards Wren, or if they just see her as another kid.

Fives must have the same curiosity because he doesn't approach to get his helm back.

The boy tilts his head to the side and gives Wren a strange look, probably because of the helmet. She groans from the hit and starts patting dirt off her pants.

Rex has flashbacks from when Wren ran into the General yesterday and the exact same thing happened. The kid really needs to learn to look where she's running before she puts a helmet shaped dent in the walker. Dex would just love that.

The boy runs a quick hand through his messy black hair to clear it from his bright amber eyes as he takes a quick look around, pausing briefly on the other kids before putting his attention back on Wren. Finally, he makes a decision and takes a couple steps forward and offers her a helping hand.

Wren doesn't notice at first but freezes when she repositions the helm and finds the boy's booted feet in front of her. She follows them up to the boy and his outstretched hand. But she doesn't go anywhere near the hand as she looks up at him and Rex can perfectly picture her confused face under the bucket.

The boy notes her hesitation and says something in Locua, smiling a friendly smile down to her. Finally, after a few more seconds, Wren cautiously reaches out and clasps his hand.

Rex cracks a small smile even though he can tell this is a delicate situation. And he's been in enough of them to spot one. It's like if he even breathes wrong this whole encounter could go south. But if this turns out a success, Wren may make some friends her age, which means less Rexing. And Rex can happily get on that ship.

Wren grasps the side of the helmet as the boy starts pulling her up. The girl is halfway up when she slides it off, revealing her distinctive hair and eyes all at once.

The boy tenses up upon seeing her, his eyes going wide as he lets her hand go without warning. The sudden betrayal catches Wren off guard and she falls back a little before regaining balance and saving herself from the full trip down.

The boy steps back from her and doesn't look away. Like if he does, she will do something. To Rex it seems like he's trying to imitate the way the adult Locunians glare down at her, but he's not quite getting it down right.

Wren frowns at him and says something Rex barely hears nor understands. But whatever she said had a sharp edge to it and Rex feels the shift towards south like a Jedi sensing the force.

The boy hardens his failed adult glare and says something back to her in the same tone. Whatever he said must have been rude because Wren's pale face starts turning a few shades red.

She folds her arms and talks back to the boy, her voice becoming ever so sharper and louder. The boy folds his arms as well and matches her tone with a louder comeback. They start going back and forth in Locua, raising their voices a little every time.

Rex can smell a screaming match coming on. And he's not sure if he should break it off or not. They're just kids. And it doesn't seem like a serious enough argument for the Captain to step in on. It's more like some kind of name calling war than anything else. But he doesn't want to be the one who has to peel a thrashing ball of angry Wren off the kid if a fight breaks out. But if one were to happen, his credits are on Wren.

The two kid's faces become more and more red as the argument goes on. They get in each other's faces; their arms still folded tight. Wren on her tippy toes to try and look intimidating again but not coming close to the boy's high, her fanged teeth proudly showing to make up for it. Rex notices the boy doesn't have fangs when he tries to copy her. But he matches her anger. The captain can practically see lightning shoot out between their eyes.

The other kids watch, their little faces going from Wren to the boy and back as they go on like watching some kind of sport.

Rex is just starting to think he should probably do something when two Locunian guards appear on either side of Wren as if from thin air. Easy to do with all the attention on her and the boy.

The guards act before Wren has time to notice them and before Rex can warn her. Bringing their arms down in front of her, they shove Wren back as hard as they can. Getting her away from the boy who's just as shocked as they are to see it happen and lets his failed glare slip off his face, like a mask he forgot to hold up and dropped. Wren stumbles back a few steps, dropping fives's helmet as her hands unfold and whip back to break her fall when she hits the ground, so hard she skids a couple feet.

Wren recovers fast and scrambles to get back on her feet, knowing the dangers of staying on the ground around these people. But before she can even sit up all the way the guards cross their staffs together and stab the two ends into the dirt on either side of her. Creating an X shaped barrier to stop her from getting back up.

She freezes on seeing the X in her face, eventually looking up at the two for blocking her way. Her piercing blood red eyes just visible through the gaps in her long bangs, as if she were trying to stab into their very souls by mental will alone.

Like a spark to gas, the Locunians take their chance and an angry crowd quickly grows from nothing, yelling and screaming as usual.

Rex and Echo were up and running as soon as the guards shoved Wren. Fives runs too. And because he's already closer he becomes the first responder.

The trooper passes through the thin crowd and doesn't slow as he kicks the guard staffs right out of the ground and away from Wren. Freeing the girl from the X and allowing her to scramble to her feet. Fives watches the people and the guards with fierce determination as he keeps Wren close and waits for the others to catch up.

Rex and Echo hit the crowds and start shoving their way past while other troopers begin to realize what's happening. The Captain didn't notice just how small the crowd really is until now. It's a significant drop from what there were before. As if only those who _really_ have a problem with Wren decided to rally. Most of them are high class Locunians. The rest just don't care enough or don't want to get involved and watch from a distance. Rex wonders if it has anything to do with the other day, when he saw some of the people arguing with the Leader.

On top of that, the crowd begins shouting and arguing more amongst _themselves_ then to the middle. Many point fingers at Wren and the boy, as if it proves some sort of point.

Other troopers start entering the crowd to try and break it up as Rex and Echo get to the centre. Rex joins Fives in facing the guards wile Echo watches the people behind them. Wren stands shielded in the middle of their protective triangle, nervously humming her new melody under all the noise.

The boy Wren ran into stands behind the guards, looking like he really doesn't want to be there. It seems like he tried to milt into the crowd a couple times, but the Locunians won't let him. He scans his people with uncomprehensive eyes before looking to Wren, no longer trying to copy their perfect looks of hate.

The guards keep glancing at each other, at the crowd, and then at them, particularly Wren. It seems to Rex like they didn't plan ahead and don't actually know what to do next. But they hold their staffs anyway, ready for a fight. And Rex is completely fine with battling it out with them after what they did, he and Fives both really want to, actually.

Because of this Rex finds himself automatically sizing them up with expert soldier eyes. He's already picked up that these men are more for decoration than real purpose. It's obvious from their unprofessional stances to their fully clad, poorly designed dark grey body armour. Riddled with intricate, over the top decorations ranging from antlered helmets to sculpted shoulder plaits in the form of animal heads that the Captain knows will only get in the way when it comes to speed and combat. They look nice, sure, but that's as far as they go in terms of usefulness.

It's in their eyes as well. The only opening Rex sees is a small slit for vision in each of the fancy guard helmets, were he can spot the guard's eyes darting in every direction, like little cornered animals, pathetic.

Rex already finds himself planning his first move, even though he'll probably never deliver it. With the Locunians around them and the already delicate relationship they have, he doesn't think a fight would be smart. Going along the same lines, Rex forces himself not to touch the blasters in their hoisters. He can't give the people a reason. But if he needs them he can still quickdraw faster than a Jedi on greased ice.

A frantic looking dark haired woman breaks through the crowd and runs towards the boy. The woman (obviously the boy's mother) embraces him with a shaking arm as soon as she closes the distance, her other arm clutching a bundled up crying baby close to her chess. The boy's face turns a new shade of embarrassed red as she drags him further away from the guards by his ear and starts scanning him for injuries with wide amber eyes, yelling at him the whole way.

Rex decides it's time to leave before things get any more elevated. With a nod to Fives, the Captain turns and scoops Wren up. They're about to meet with the crowd when more guards appear in their way, forming a wall to bar them from leaving.

Rex tenses. He can tell they're under orders from the Leader by the way they awkwardly shuffle their feet yet refuse to move when fives gets close. That pause in movement is when Rex notices how quiet the people have gotten, not completely, but significantly.

"_This_ is, _exactly_ what I was afraid of." The hairs behind Rex's neck stand up as the Leader's squeaky accent breaks the silence from behind them. He turns to find the Gefar walking towards them through a gap in the crowd cleared by more fake guards. Hands firmly behind his back, his nose high, and his evil smirk barley hidden. Rex does his best to not give him an "I'm gonna blast you" face, but only half succeeds.

Despite how hard the Leader tries, he doesn't have the same impact he did the last time he showed up like this. It's mostly because the Captain really hates him now. But it's also because of the Leader's down right refusal to change from his fancy high class robes to more travel appropriate clothes. His short time in nature has resulted in the fancy fabric becoming torn, worn and dirty, and he may or may not have stepped in animal droppings lately, Rex can't tell for sure. It almost looks like the Leader has never set foot outside until now and didn't know what to expect. He looks so out of place. And this is only day two, Rex can't wait to see day four.

"And it is why I, _suggested_ the girl be sent away in the _beginning_" Gefar continues loudly in a I-told-you-so tone so all can hear as he strolls to the middle of the space, like he has all the time in the world.

As he walks, he casually looks over the situation, unsurprised, like he's seen this a thousand times before. His eyes quickly brushing over the crowd buzzing with translations and his guards who keep their eyes on Rex's men. He then sparingly takes the time to measure up Rex, Fives and Echo like he's planning to have them stuffed later. He gives Wren no more than half a glance then finishes his inspection by observing the boy and his mother, a mask of concern forming to his face, purely for show, of course.

Gefar circles around to the middle again and looks back to the crowd, the audience to his performance. But the simple fact that he's speaking in basic means this is more for them then it is for the people.

"I _knew_ the girl would be _nothing_ but trouble to us. I _knew_ it from my _experience_ in dealing with her people, her _kind_. And I tried, I _tried_ to have her sent away. I did _everything_ in my _power_ to make it so. But these, _men_ would not allow it." The Leader spits as he jabs a long bony finger at Rex, Fives and Echo. Rex has a little fantasy of stepping forward and snapping that blasting finger in two.

"But how did this happen? These _people_ are not one of us. They do not _represent_ us. They do not _carry_ our wishes. For they are _Republic_ men. So who are they to _tell_ us what we can or cannot do on our own planet? _Look_ at what happened. By letting this girl stay, these men have _knowingly_ allowed _our safety_, _our family_, and _our very honour_ to be _threatened_ by the _Ghost_!"

People have started nodding along with Gefar's preaching, agreeing with him and allowing themselves to get rallied up by his words again. He quickly and easily calms the crowd like well-behaved children and turns back to the Captain.

"But do not fear, my people, for I _will not_ give up so _easily_. I will ask again that the girl be sent _away_. Before, her presence only effected our honour, _tarnishing_ us with her people's stench. I was _forced_ to allow it with a _heavy heart_. But now her _presence_ effects our very _existence_. I can no longer _sit_ and _let_ that happen."

Rex can't believe this man. Wren gets in one argument with a kid and now she's suddenly a danger. The leader's about to continue when Rex cuts him off.

"_Now, hold, on!_" Rex says over all other voices, stealing everyone's attention in the process. "You can't _possibly_ believe a _nine year old girl_ is a threat to your existence. She's a blasting kid for force sake!" The Leader looks back to the people as if someone has just asked him a very good question, his voice carrying a tone of hollow seriousness when he speaks.

"I know this is _difficult_ to understand. For outsiders, who do not know our ways, and for some of you who have recently started to, _question,_ them. There are those among us who do not fully _realize_ the girl's danger. And I see your confusion. You only see a child before you, a little girl with nowhere to go, so innocent, so helpless. Or so she wants you to _believe_. But do not be fooled by her age, my people. For this girl is _not_ like us, she is a member of the Forest Ghosts. The most _savage_, _ruthless_ clan of Locuna. A white haired _demon_ of the trees, and a _destroyer_ of _peace_."

Wren's head bows down slightly as translations from the crowd reached her ears. She obviously doesn't like what he's saying about her and her clan.

"_Remember_, the leader of this _disgraced warrior clan_ is the reason our armies are now _weak_, _purposely_ run to the ground by the woman we called _general_. Who we _blindly_ gave our _trust_ to protect us."

Wren tenses at the mention of her leader. Her head shoots up to give Gefar the most hatful glare Rex has ever seen her give, a low growl escaping from beep within her. The corners of the Leader's mouth curl up as he realizes he has just struck a nerve and goes on with a spring in his step.

"And see where _that_ has gotten us! This clan is why we are being _targeted_ by the _Separatists_! And why we have had so much _death_ on this road. The girl carries _black luck_ in her name. She is the _reason_ for all our pains, _she_ is the _reason_ the mist crossed our path, and _she_ is the _reason_ our great city has been _burnt_ to _ashes_. And now _this_! Look at what happened here today. Do you wish for our _children_ to be the next _target_ in her _reign_ of _destruction_?" He exclaims, gesturing towards the boy with his arm. "This girl is _no child_. She is a _threat_, a _seed_ of _evil_. Just like her _clan_, just like their _leader_, she will _ruin_ us."

Its obvious Gefar's speech is at an end when he places his arms behind his back and looks out over the crowd. The people who agree with him make it known with cheers and shouts while those who still don't hang back and stay quiet, not drawing attention to themselves. After a few seconds of letting the crowd go wild he raises his hand and they grow calm once more. The only sound being that of the crying baby. The Leader then turns back to Rex with a look of triumph.

The Captain has had it. All he wants to do is get Wren out, but he knows the guards won't let him pass unless the Leader allows it. Of course he could force his way through, but that would mean starting something, and they're still outnumbered.

Rex takes a breath and puts Wren down in front of Fives before standing back up and turning to the Leader. A new determined look and set in his shoulders.

"Remember what the General said about you causing trouble," Rex cautions as he marches up to the Leader. Gefar tightens his toothless smile while he waves the guards over to stand between them, stopping Rex only a few feet short.

"I am only speaking, _clone_," Gefar spits. "I believe I am _allowed_ to do that, am I not?" He asks, raising his voice over the baby's crying for all to hear. "_Our_ government grants us the _freedom of speech_. Does _yours_ do the same?"

Every head turns to Rex as the translations spread around, but Rex only watches the Leader. "Yes," he starts, a tinny smirk forming onto the corner of his mouth. "The people of the Republic _also_ have the freedom to openly speak their minds. And since you do here as well, then that means _I'm_ allowed to talk too. That is, unless you're gonna stop me." Rex only pauses to give the Leader a knowing look.

The corners of Gefar's mouth twitch ever so slightly as he realizes the trap he's just fallen in.

Rex presses on looking over the crowd and knowing the people are still translating his words, everyone will hear.

"In the Republic," he starts. "We _don't_ promote hate towards little girls. In the Republic, we _don't_ talk our citizens into hurting little girls. In the Republic, we _don't_ mistake kids arguing as a blasting _threat_ to the government. And in the Republic, we _don't_ hide while our people are attacked by _bloodthirsty beasts._"

There's a sharp intake from that last bit as not even Rex saw that coming. But he goes with it and looks to the Leader.

"So tell me, where _exactly_ were _your_ men? When _mine_ were busy saving _your_ people's lives?" Gefar doesn't answer. And it's in his pause that Rex notices the Locunians have gone completely quiet once more, even the baby has stopped crying. They all look to their Leader with a mixture of surprise, realization, and embarrassment as he still doesn't reply. His is mouth twitching even more now while he works on an answer.

The Captain notices that more troopers are standing around them in the center now. He also spots the General, calmly watching from a distance out of the corner of his eye, apparently deciding to let Rex deal with the issue. Now that the numbers are a bit more evened out, Rex has some breathing room when it comes to making a statement without causing a scene. So he decides to finally end this and put Gefar out of his misery for today.

"We are here to protect," the Captain starts strong, cutting Gefar off from his thick silence and quickly getting the crowd hooked on his words. "That is our mission on this planet. We will protect you from the orza, and we will protect you from the Separatists. But we protect _everyone_, _including_ this kid from _any_ of you. I don't care where she's from, I don't care what the story is. _She, is, protected_." Rex finishes and the crowd doesn't reply in uproar like he thought they might. They stay quite like children after being scolded, most won't even meet his eyes as they take sudden interest in their shoes.

The only one that has no problem staring Rex down is Gefar, who glares at the Captain like a spoiled child trying to make his head explode. The mask of goodness gone, the people ether don't notice or ignore it.

Rex meets the death glare with a blank yet stern face, refusing to drop to Gefar's level and glare back. It only makes the Leader angrier, and that's when Rex knows that he's won this round.

With that he turns and makes his way back to the others. Fives snatches his helmet off the ground. And Rex leads them away without any trouble from the guards or the people. Forcing the gathering to disperse as he breaks the moment, leaving only the Leader and his guards frozen in place to watch Rex and them go.

Wren walks close behind them. She sneaks a look back at the boy as he's dragged off by his mother in the opposite direction, yelling at him so loud that her bundled newborn has started crying again. The boy gets the same idea and looks back at her. They make eye contact, but whatever they try to tell the other through facial expression alone is lost through their expanding separation.

They got back on the road shortly after and the rest of the day went by just as smoothly as the beginning. The people went back to ignoring Wren and the Leader retreated back to his own personal world at the rear of the moving party.

The only notable disturbance was when the Commander spotted an orza watching them from deep within the forest. But nothing happened from it. Apparently it was alone and ran off after realizing it was seen. But Rex is willing to bet his bucket that orza was a scout. Yet another sign of intelligence from the orza. Military intelligence to be precise. And he likes that even less.

But despite the Leader's stunt and the sighting, it was a good day, no injuries, no deaths. Rex would even go so far as to say it was a day of nothing, in clone standards, at least.

* * *

**I'm really sorry for the delay! Seriously, I have no idea what happened here, this chapter just wasn't working with me (still not too happy with it). **

**But I have been busy! For instance, I took the critique of my reviewers to the heart and went back to fix A LOT of mistakes (some actually made me flinch) **

**Word count, then and now: CH ****1: 636 to 679, CH ****2: 1'318 to 1'390,**** CH 3: 1'330 to 1'573,**** CH 4: 8'440 to 8'576, ****CH 5: 1'420 to 1'318, ****CH 6: 7'373 to 7'316, working on CH 7. ****I recommend you go back and read them.**

**And as another little sorry here's a fun recommendation: go read "****101 things they don't teach you on kamino" ****By: AL0LT0 **

**It's just an insanely funny short star wars fanfic that includes clones having shipping wars, Hardcase not knowing what boobs are, Kenobi giving Cody "the talk", and a very good reason why clones should _never_ read twilight. i'll have another recommendation next chapter :D**


	10. Chapter 10

The night air sits still, cool, and quiet, saturated by the light of Locuna's only moon as it looms over the planet, painting the tree leafs in a simple-but-beautiful unpolished silver never before seen by the off-worlders. This light illuminates the road like a grand white belt compared to the dark, shadowed tree trunks on both sides. Some may feel it's a line of safety surrounded by danger, others might say it's just a road.

Little of the planet's nightlife can be seen from the road. The occasional darting shadows and unrecognizable calls from far away leaves much to the imagination. For those awake, that is.

Almost everyone is in a deep, deserved, and much needed sleep. The only exceptions being the few troopers taking up night watch, and the Commander as she takes her master's place this night to stay up and sense for danger.

The night watch stays scattered though. All keeping their eyes open for trouble in different sections. So naturally no one talks, since there's no one to talk to. This leaves dead silence to reign over the glowing road, unchallenged. Like a bottomless hole, imposable for the single clone to fill with his own sounds as he sits off to the side of the road and watches the tank. His eyes stinging, and his helmet and blaster rifle both forgotten at his feet.

The trooper was tasked with watching over the walker. It's a slow, simple, but important job, apparently. Watch the tank, that's all. He doesn't even know why. He heard something about animals on the tank the other day, but didn't bother to ask around about it. He regrets that now. How can he do his job if he doesn't even know what the job is?

The clone tries to stifle a thick yawn but it forces its way out. Unfortunately for him, he already served guard duty for the last two nights, and he never got the chance to sleep those nights off in the tank on the move. In the last three days he has only had maybe an hour of sleep. Of course he tried telling this to the trooper who ordered him onto night duty, but all that clone did was pull rank. He has no choice.

The lonely trooper closes his eyes for a dangerously long "blink." Completely missing the small shadows as they scuttle down tree trunks and leap onto the tank, disappearing through the torn holes on the sides just as he opens his eyes again. Each time he "blinks," more and more shadows race past him. All timing it perfectly to avoid detection.

After a while, the blinks get longer, and the yawns become more and more desperate. Finally, the clone convinces himself to let his eyes rest, just for a minute or two. If something comes, he will definitely be able to hear it. The trooper's eyelids drop as he relaxes against the wagon.

The shadows immediately press their advantage and start pouring from the trees. Like black droplets, splashing down onto the walker, only to be absorbed through the holes like a mettle sponge.

It's not long until the harsh sounds of tipping crates can be heard over the clone's steady snores, followed by ripping cans, crumpling wrappers, and the happy squeaks of creatures as they begin their nightlong feast.

* * *

I know this was short, and there's a reason for that. My writing has been slow lately so I just cut this chunk off the bigger incomplete chapter and made it into a small chapter. In other words it didn't take me this long to write 557 words. I just needed to put _something_ out there, hopefully it'll respark my consistency.

I'll give two recommendations to make up for the shortness and the delay:

Go read "Cloning Around" By: Igorina

This one doesn't have anything to do with the clone troopers, but it's still a hilarious and silly SW one shot. If you want to see how Cad Bane and other bounty hunters would handle the art of babysitting smaller copies of themselves.

And go read "The Phase II Saga" By: spikala

This one's a bit longer but it's beautifully written and the characters are…well, in character. Captain Rex's armour has been stolen and his men are suspiciously nowhere to be found. Don't try reading in a classroom because you will lol hard.


	11. Chapter 11

The Captain has this day marked as "bad" the very _second_ he's woken up by his Troopers yelling and arguing with one another. Locuna's life star is barely a line of light over the trees and he already knows something's happened. The arguing automatically snaps Rex into captain mode and he springs to his feet. He doesn't allow his men to argue. They fight together, not each other.

Rex starts scanning the area for the source. But he isn't able to find it before Hotshot reaches him, out of breath from running.

"What is it Trooper?" Rex asks, already halfway to fight mode. He doesn't _think_ they're under attack. He would've woken up much faster if they were, that's a whole other instinct. The Clone seems a bit shaken up though. Rex waits for Hotshot to catch his breath. Behind him, Fives shoves Echo awake and Kix shows up out of the blue. They join the group behind Rex to hear what Hotshot has to say.

Wren is nowhere to be seen, but that's not really a concern at the moment.

"Sir," Hotshot breaths. But before he says anything else, Rex's gaze shifts past the Clone and to the tank in the distance, where the arguing is coming from. Panicked Troopers buzz around it, waving their arms like a bunch of crazed Jar-Jars. The Captain can't tell what exactly because he doesn't have his helmet on, but _somethings_ on the tank, little white dots crawling all over the shell.

"They ate the food," the Shiny says.

With those four words, Rex knows exactly what happened and breaks into a sprint towards the walker, the others close behind him. More and more people are waking up as the word spreads, causing the road to become increasingly crowded.

The scene at the tank almost looks like it's from a horror/comedy holo-vid. The white creatures cover the top and sides of the shell, all startled by the Clones. They run around at lightning speeds, jumping for overhead branches and tree trunks to escape. Some even brave touching the ground for a couple seconds to run for freedom. But the numbers don't shrink, for every one that gets away, two more come out through a torn hole in the shell, only to run around and repeat the cycle.

Rex's men work to get them out of the walker by banging on the sides and yelling. Hardcase leads the effort, hammering against the mettle with a thick rusty rod to make the most noise. He's probably doing more damage than good.

Dex stands at the back with his small crew, tapping away at the outer panel which for some reason won't let them open the rear hatch.

Rex takes charge immediately, yelling at stationary Troopers to make themselves useful and positioning them to get the best results. The General and Commander appear a minute later and dive into the effort. They use the Force to try and make the animals leave. Skywalker has some success in scattering the creatures. But the trick appears a little too advanced for his new Padawan to master.

"How's the hatch coming?" Rex asks Dex when he's close enough and doesn't have anyone to yell at.

"Almost have it," Dex mumbles, more to himself then to the Captain as he taps the last few sequences into the panel before, Pop! The hatch flicks open like a can of rotten rations.

Creatures start pouring through the new exit at blinding speeds before the hatch even opens all the way, like water out a flood gate. Clones yell and hit the sides even harder, glad to have progress.

It only takes about twenty seconds to empty the tank, and about five seconds to truly realize how much damage has been done. The first thing that hits Rex is the smell. The walker reeks like animal droppings, opened rations, burnt plastic, and a few other things he can't place, and doesn't want to.

The second thing is the sight. All the crates have been knocked over and torn into. Ration cans and wrappers litter the floor, every one opened, every one wiped clean of food.

"_Blast_," the Captain mumbles.

Rex steps back and watches everyone's reaction as Fives and a few other men run past him to sort out what's left. The General speaks to a shaken up soldier not far away. A Shiny by the looks of him, his bucket and blaster forgotten on the ground near a cart.

Commander Tano tries to keep the people calm, but there's too many for that. They've formed around the tank. Rex can see the recent news spreading outward as they mumble to each other, some even yelling as the fear already starts to break them down.

The Captain can hear the Locunian baby crying somewhere nearby, but he can't see it or the mother.

Gefar eyes the walker grimly while he whispers to a tight lipped Locunian next to him. Rex is half expecting him to give a speech, but he doesn't.

Wren stands off to the side, hidden a little by the crowd, no one notices her at the moment. She calmly watches the Clones as they roll destroyed crates out through the back, empty cans falling out on all sides as they go. She has no fear in her eyes like the rest. Other kids her age cry by their parent's sides, but she doesn't shed a _tear_.

Rex can't tell for sure if Wren understands what's happening at the moment because of how calm she looks. But he feels she does. And that she just knows acting out like the others won't solve anything. Rex, (like the Jedi and many of his seasoned men) is taking this as a cold hard fact. Like a lot of things in this war, they just need to move on. Maybe Wren is thinking the same. The food is gone, simple as that. Now, what are they going to do about it?

The General has them moving after a brief inventory check and skipping the morning ration hand out. They have exactly half a crate of cans and two handfuls of bars left, which is about one can per person and half a bar for each kid on top of that. Rex doesn't know how far that will get them though. His men can go _days_ running on empty, but the people? That's a different story.

They try _everything_; none of the Locunians brought any real food, all they have are spices. General Kenobi doesn't have supply ships to spare. And _somehow_ not one Locunian there knows how to hunt or scavenge in this forest. Blindly walking into the woods without a skilled guide is a waist and a death wish, they could end up hunting something with poisonous flesh or something could end up hunting _them_. The cart pulling animals are inedible, apparently. And Rex has yet to see any tasty looking plants, which is a whole other problem if they actually find something and it turns out to be poisonous as well.

The first few hours are hard, not because of hunger but because of the people's negative and loud attitudes. They calm down after a while though, eventually realizing there's nothing they can do. So they devote their energy to walking. That's when the dead silence comes back.

Rex walks among most of his men behind the tank. They've kept the formation from yesterday, but are focusing a little more man power in the middle now that the walker is experiencing some technical difficulties.

Dex and his crew have been in a bad mood all morning. Apparently the creatures did more than just eat and crap in the tank, they chewed wires, punctured pipes, scratched circuits and force knows what else. So now the tank is in even worse shape than ever. All six of the small canons are now offline. The walking speed has been cut in half. And the back hatch won't close all the way, no matter how hard they try to force it. Not to mention the unhealthy grinding sounds coming from every joint.

Their first concern is still getting the main cannon up though. And the crew are close, at least Rex thinks they're close. Two Clones are still riding on top of the tank to work on the actual cannon. It seems they found the main problem, and there's a lot less arguing between them at the moment. But that's as far as Rex can tell. What the problem is he doesn't know and what they're doing to fix it he doesn't know, and as long as it's fixed soon, he doesn't care.

The Clones aren't the only ones on top of the AT-TE today. Wren lays down on the walker's rear, where the mettle shell is the flattest. Using her bag as a pillow, she rests her arms behind her head and watches the clouds float by. The mechanics don't mind since she's as out of the way as she can be.

It's funny because Rex didn't see Wren climb up. They all looked down to hear a com message and next thing they know she's on the tank as if she's been there for hours. Rex thinks of getting her to climb down, but decides against it, figuring it would only spark a Rexing spree.

At least she's saving her energy up there, which is smart of the girl to do.

"How the force does she do that?" Fives mumbles to no one in particular, removing his helmet for some fresh air. "_Every_ time, you look away for a second and poof, there she is."

"Well, her people are probably called the _Forest Ghosts _for a reason," Echo says.

"And they're a warrior clan too. It makes sense," Kix adds.

Rex almost stops walking. He forgot about that and it shocked him for a second.

The Leader called them a warrior clan. And if that's true it explains some things about the girl, like her speed and climbing skills. But the Captain still has questions. Where are they? A warrior clan wouldn't have left their own knowing the way these people would treat her, would they? Did someone get to them?

What Rex wouldn't give for a Locua speaking translator droid right now. He doesn't trust the people enough do ask questions through them since he can't tell the honest ones from the dishonest. Oh well, he'll be able to find some form of translation when they get to the city. Right now all he can do is wait and hope Wren's family is safe wherever they are. Rex has already seen enough orphans made in this war to last him an unaccelerated-lifetime.

The men must have been thinking the same things because a minute later Fives launches a conversation on where Wren's clan could be. The Captain stays out of it though since they're really just going over what he's been thinking himself. He tunes them out and watches the forest on their left as they walk.

Since the Captain is busy being vigilant like the highly trained, sharp eyed Clone that he is, he _completely_ misses Wren as she suddenly shoots upright in her spot on top the tank. Her head whipping around to look behind them and into the forest. Her eyes wide and alert like they've been so for hours instead of seconds.

Hotshot is the first to notice. He elbows Fives to get his attention and points her out. Rex is faintly aware of his men mumbling behind him, but he doesn't look up or back, just at the forest.

Wren stays in her state for only a few seconds (slightly resembling a small, twitchy creature scanning it's habitat for predators) before breaking her gaze and scrambling to her feet. Throwing the bag over her shoulder, Wren scales down the back leg and runs right to the Captain, repeatedly jumping and yelling "Rex!" as she goes, snapping him out of his vigil trance.

Alarmed, Rex whips his head around and quickly spots her as she pushes past and dances around Clones. When she reaches him she immediately tries to push him back the way they've come and slightly to the left, the same direction she was looking earlier.

"Wren? What're you doing?" Rex asks, looking down at her, unaware that his men have stopped to watch. She ignores the Captain and puts all her energy into pushing him. Of course he doesn't even budge.

Rex's frown deepens. She's panicked, frightened by something. He doesn't have a good feeling about it.

"Wren. What's gotten into you?" He knows she doesn't understand, but hopes his tone will carry the question anyway.

Instead of an answer, Wren runs around the Captain and snatches his hand to try and pull him this time.

"Lmbo geena fel opmi!" She grunts, digging her heels into the dirt in the effort to rip Rex's arm off. Not enough, her feet slide right out from under her. She then tries to outright run, but she isn't going anywhere with the Captain as a living anchor. The kid pads over the dirt like running on a treadmill.

Rex was too confused to act right away. But he finally pulls her back from the pointless running and kneels down in front of her, putting his hands on her shoulders so she stays still and looks him in the eyes, or at least the helmet's visor.

"_Wren_, _what's_, _wrong_?" He asks as clear as possible. She calms down a little and tries talking, but her words come out faster than it seems posable.

"Hido nodata opmi songo-" Rex shakes his head. Wren stops talking and grunts, clearly frustrated by the language barrier. She pushes hair out of her eyes and points a little finger in the direction she's been wanting to go before yelling "_Opmi_!"

"_No_, Wren. _What's_ opmi?!"

She grunts, blowing more white strands off her darting eyes. Finally, an idea seems to come to her. Wren stops pointing and looks right at him, her eyes glowing again.

"_Roger, roger_," She says, slowly, clearly, and carefully.

Rex freezes.

"_Roger, roger_," the girl repeats.

The General chooses that moment to look back at what's happening, but as he does his gaze automatically shifts to something in the forest.

"Roger roger" Rex repeats slowly, realization and grim alertness taking over. He looks past her, into the forest, deep, deep within, past the branches, trunks and vines. He spots movement, stands straight, and draws his blasters. "We got clankers!"

Rex should have seen this coming, they all should have. But with most of the attention on the orza, he almost forgot about the other threat currently on this planet: Separatists.

Droids often have no use for roads. As long as the ground isn't too rocky and the space isn't cramped they can walk through anything. This forest is perfect for them, they can walk right through it. B-line to wherever they need to go. The Captain's seen it happen before. And he's been ambushed like that before as well.

It's not long until droids start pouring onto the road and blasting, not long at all. Luckily, Wren's warning bought them just enough time to smarten up. The people are already being herded further up the road and out of the way. But even with their effort, the body count still climbs.

Rex and his men group together and move to meet the droids coming up the road. Joining the Commander as she and other Troopers hold them off as best they can without risking casualties.

Rex strains to try and count the enemy's numbers but fails, clankers are still leaking out from the forest. It could be a small recon sweep, or the entire army for all he knows. At least they don't have tanks, no tank could make it through these trees.

The General joins them not long after the fight begins. Bringing with him the rest of the Troopers. He wordlessly springs forward and takes point, deflecting and bullseyeing blaster bolts into droid heads every time. His Padawan does the same, but lacks the same precision. Rex and his men blast from wagon cover, and. It's a decent formation, but not perfect.

As more droids come, the line is slowly pushed back. The tank is still shorting out. The turrets are still down and the main cannon is still being worked on. Rex argues with the tank crew over the com as he takes cover behind a cart and tries to get Wren to sit still beside him.

The girl refused to retreat with the rest of the Locunians, even bit a Trooper when he tried to pick her up. They didn't have time to do anything about her, so the next best thing was keeping her close and out of the way. Luckily she wouldn't leave Rex's side, or she wouldn't leave his vicinity at least. Rex tries to keep her out of the line of fire but she keeps running around with no apparent pattern and for no apparent reason. It only makes the Captain's job even harder.

"Wren! Stay where I can _blasting_ see you!" He yells as he moves and crouches behind another wagon, glancing back at her as he reloads a blaster.

They're being pushed closer and closer to the walker, and Wren's getting antsier, running into more open space and getting further away from him each time. She may not be frozen up like before, but this is just as dangerous.

Rex finally gives up and grabs Wren by the back of her shirt when she runs close enough. Lifting her right off the ground, her bare feet still going.

Rex drops her behind the wagon he's also behind.

"_Stay_" he says, as stern as he can. Wren can't use the language barrier excuse because he taught her that word. She doesn't move, but she clearly wants to. That's good enough for him.

Rex goes back to blasting droids. Taking down one after the other with clean headshots. Wren watches through gaps in the wood, her mouth agape in wonder.

The last of the droids have finally cleared the trees. It's not a full army, but they're outnumbered ten to one. Their best chance is the tank's repair now.

The line of the defense is dangerously close to the walker. The Commander stands on top the shell, exactly where Wren was laying not long age. The Padawan deflects almost all bolts aimed at the tank as the Clones frantically work to fix it.

Rex listens in on the Troopers' progress. Step by step they get closer to a working weapons system. The closer the droids come the more they bicker with each other.

"No! The recoil charges are all wrong! We need to move them _before_ reconnecting the sparkers."

"But the recoil charges won't fit anywhere else."

"Oh, right, well in that case we'll just leave them _right_ where they are and blow everyone up, great plan."

"Troopers!" Rex bellows over the com. The men shut up after that, and apparently manage to work out the problems in silence because it's not long until they come back onto the com.

"Right, nearly done, just need to reconnect the primary power cord back into the base," the Trooper's voice is strained by whatever he's doing.

A few seconds of silence, during which Rex and his group are forced back a couple of meters, at this rate they have four minutes, tops.

"Blast! I can't get in!"

Rex looks back to find one Trooper lying flat at the base of the walker's main cannon, apparently trying to jam his arm into the gap that separates said cannon from the tanks outer shell. The second Trooper crouches next to him.

"We'll try harder! It's not that small a space!"

"You wanna give it a shot? I'm not sure if you've noticed, but our arms are the _exact_ same blasting size!"

No matter how hard they try, the men can't plug the cable in. The Commander can't help, if she leaves her post they'll easily be picked off.

Rex is halfway through formulating a plan C, but as he counts men, his head drifts over to find Wren has left his side, again.

Wren noticed the commotion on the mettle spider because Rex kept looking back at it. He seemed concerned to her. So she decided to go see what was happening.

Scurrying back when he wasn't looking, she quickly climbs up the first leg. Narrowly avoiding a red bolt aimed at her head. She looks closely at the smocking mark it left on the spider and turns towards where it came from. Giving the shooter a good hiss before climbing up the rest of the way.

Rex didn't spot Wren until she was already on the walker and his blood went cold.

"Why does she do that?" He complains to himself, forced to turn back around and return fire.

The Clones on the tank notice her as she inches closer to them. Their first thought was to get her off the biggest target on the road, but their second was a bit more ideological, and dangerous. The Clones look at each other, both wondering how the conversation with the Captain would go if she got electrocuted on their watch.

Wren figures out what's going on before they see her. When they do, she steps forward.

"Blast it we don't have time!" The one kneeling finally says, ripping his repair gloves off and handing them to the kid. She puts them on as the other gets out of her way. They're big on her, gigantic, but they'll also protect her from getting zapped.

Wren takes the giant cord and slips her arm through the gap with ease. Peaking down with one crimson eye as she struggles to reach the socket at the bottom. Her nose scrunches to the smell of burnt mettle.

"Take aim Dex" a Trooper says over the com, "on our word."

"Right." Wren feels the cannon shift next to her, pointing towards the oncoming enemy.

Wren clenches her fangs and stretches her arm as far as it will go, too focused to hum for comfort. Just a little more, but she can hear the battle approaching, men fighting and people dying. Just like before.

Wren hears a sharp metallic click and breaths. The circuits around her light up in rich blues as new systems come to life. A Trooper yanks her out of the gap and yells "blast'em!"

And that's exactly what they do. The droid numbers plummet with each loud bang. The last few are quickly picked off with sabre and blaster.

The death toll is surprisingly low this round, with only a couple carts severely destroyed by the cannon. So all that's left to do is keep moving before more droids came, or the orza appear.

It's a rough start to the day, and the people are already showing signs of hunger. Their pace is slowing as a result. They'll have to give out the last of the rations soon.

All Rex could do was rub his face when he heard of Wren's assistance on the walker.

"It was dangerous, but she didn't care," He mumbles.

Fives only smirks. "Remind you of anyone?" he purrs. Rex doesn't look at the Clone.

"Don't, start."

Fives chuckles as Echo peers into the forest. "Good thing she spotted the clankers though. Or there would've been trouble. It's amazing she even _saw_ them, even from on the walker."

Hotshot pipes in from behind them. "Yea, did ya see how she shot up and looked right at them?" The Shiny shakes his head, "it's almost like, she just, _knew_."

Rex skips a beat of reality, stumbling on absolutely nothing. His men don't notice, they walk past him as his pace slows.

_She just knew. _Rex thought, watching Wren happily skip ahead of them, making her own fun. It can't be. He drops the thought immediately, dismissing it as a coincidence. A _lucky_ coincidence.

But the Captain finds himself wondering; and because of that another thing occurs to him. Something else that he should've picked up on immediately.

_Roger Roger, _she said.

How did Wren know those words? Rex didn't teach them to her.

Has the kid encountered Separatist battle droids before? The question is bitter because its clear she has.

_Wren, what happened to you?_ The Captain thinks to himself.

Wren chooses that moment to stop skipping and look back at him. The people around her don't seem to notice, neither do his men. Her face is blank, and her eyes admit a faint red glow.

* * *

Sorry about the dullness of this chapter, it'll pick up.

But look at who's been writing lately! You can't see but I'm pointing at her (it's me.)

Now shhhhh, or my writer's block will wake up again.

Fic recommendations: Go read hypnosis by AL0LT0 (the same author who wrote 101 things they don't teach you on Kamino.)

It's short and sweat. Basically Hardcase figures out how to hypnotize people.

And I haven't been telling the authors of these fics that I've been recommending them, so how about EVERYONE just reviews the word "fiddlesticks" for Hypnosis and see how many people we can confuse, yea? ... I'm bored.

Wow fiddlesticks is a fun word. I need to use it more often. Fiddlesticks fiddlesticks fiddlesticks.


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